A TESTIMONY TO An Approaching Glory.  
BEING An account of certain Discourses lately delivered In Pancras, Soperlane, London.  
By JOSHUA SPRIG.  Esay 61. 11. 
For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth: so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.  
LONDON, Printed for Giles Calvert, at the Black Spread-Eagle at the West end of Paul's. 1648.   

The Preface to the READER.  
THere are three Vanities my soul is afflicted to behold under the Sun: Men professing and desiring an end, but denying the means: Ministers not knowing their own Doctrines and Principles: And Christians not owning their own Prayers and Hopes when they are showed them again.  
For 1. what have been the Gasping and pant of precious souls always, but after the Kingdom of God to come with power in their hearts, their lusts to be conquered, their minds renewed, the new creature to wax strong and vigorous in them, & c?  
And 2ly, what hath been the glory of our modern Orthodox Divinity, but that The Father himself loves us, That the enmity is on the creatures' part, not God's, according to these Scriptures, 
a 2 Cor. 5. 19  God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not himself to the world: and 
b Rom. 5. 10.  if when we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son, etc. That Christ is the gift and effect, not the cause of the Father's love. That the work of Redemption (or all that fell from or between God's electing men to their glorification, was but the excursion or extravagancy of Grace, but the Prodromus or praeludium to glory.  
And lastly, what have been the Prayers and Expectations of the Saints, but the coming of Christ and his Kingdom, the pouring forth of the Spirit, the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, to be all taught of God, the Lord alone to be exalted, the coming down of the New Jerusalem from God out of Heaven, etc. But what a vanity is it for men to be in with the end, and out with the means or way conducing thereto? What an unnatural thing is it in Ministers to espouse the forementioned Doctrines to themselves, and to be shy of all their kin, nay not to know their own espoused, except it be in such a coloured ? And who hath bewitched these Christians, that they should not know the Returns of their own prayers: yet thus stands the matter with us, as I have with wonder observed, and the evidence of these things may appear by the sequel.  
For first, the Lord Jesus as 
c 1 Cor. 15 45.  a quickening spirit dwelling within us, informing, enlivening, acting us, is the only Physician of value both for Conscience and Conversation, the 
d Joh. 4. 25.  Messiah who when he is come, will tell us all things, the 
e 1 Joh. 2. 20, 27.  Unction that will teach us all things, and 
f Phil. 4. 13.  through whom alone we can do all things, 
g Acts 7. 37.  that Prophet raised up unto us out of ourselves, who will be heard, that 
h Isai. 12. last.  Holy one of Israel in the midst of us, that is, 
i 1. Cor. 2. 2. Gal. 3. 1.  crucified among us, and that is 
k Col. 1. 27.  in us the hope of glory, 
l Gen, 3. 15. Gal. 4. 4.  the seed of the woman, that lies hid and buried in the woman (the earth the natural principle, or man) a long time, even till the due times of the Father when he is pleased to call him forth, and 
m Gal. 1. 15, 16.  to reveal him in us, that 
n Isai. 9 6.  to us a child is born, unto us a son is given.  
This is the Deliverer, the Saviour, the Word that is 
o Rom. 10 8,  nigh us, the 
p 〈…〉  engrafted word that is able to save our souls, that is 
q Heb. 1. 2  appointed heir of all things, whom ʳ when the Lord brings into the heart of man, he says, Let all the Angels of God (all Angelical Legal appearances, Ministrations, Operations of man, or in man) worship Him.  
It is 
s Isai. 45. 5.  He that girds us even while we do not know him. He 
t Joh. 1. 9  is the light that lightens us even while our Religion and knowledge of him is but worldly and legal, while our language is the language of Ashdod, and not pure. He it is that gasps and 
u Rom. 8 9, 21, 22  groans in the creature (even while it is in bondage to corruption) after liberty. He w serves with our iniquities, and is pressed under them as a Cart with sheaves: And when he 
x Rev. 11. 17.  takes to himself his great power and reigns, then is there peace; yea, 
y Isai. 9 7.  of the increase of his government, and of peace there is no end. When the Lord 
z Psa. 68 1  arises in us, his enemies are scattered, and all our lusts flee before him. Though they compass us about like 
a Psal.  Bees, in the name, power and unction of this jesus we destroy them; and 
b Phil. 3. 10. Matth. 14. 2.  mighty works show forth themselves when he is risen from the dead in us.  
This 
c Heb. 1.  character of the Father's person is that Coin or 
d d  Money of Solomon that answers to all things, and can fill us with the 
e Eph. 5. 19  fullness of God. 
f Joh. 5. 21, 26.  All life and power doth he carry along with him and in his own person: for he is 
g 1 Cor. 1. 24.  the wisdom of God, and the power of God. 
h 1 Joh. 5. 12.  Whosoever hath the Son, hath life, and whosoever hath not (knoweth not, acknewledgeth not) the Son in him, hath not life.  
And therefore it is that the Apostle comforts believers with the 
i Phil. 1. 6. 10. 2 Tim. 1. 12.  day of Christ, the 
k 1 Pet. 1. 13.  revelation of jesus Christ, and the 
l 2 Pet. 1. 19  day star to arise in their hearts. And 
m Heb. 10. 37.  he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry.  
This is that 
n Joh. 14. 16.  other Comforter, the same that walked in flesh among us, but another because he now dwells 
o Joh, 14. 17.  in us, as well as with us. And this was the 
p Joh. 16. 7.  end both of his coming and going away in the flesh, that he might come thus in the Spirit. This is that coming to which the Law and the Prophets bear witness, and whereof the whole Scriptures testify; 
q Mat. 3. 11.  I indeed baptise you with water, (says John the Baptist in the name of the whole Law, but there is one cometh after me, who baptizeth with the holy Ghost, and with fire. The Law leads us to Christ by the experiment of its weakness through the flesh, and the vanity of all things till we come to him. What went ye out for to see? A reed shaken with the wind? This is all that we see in Ordinances, and our own performances, till we see Christ, and Christ in the flesh 
r Joh. 14. 2.  bears witness to himself in the Spirit. What go ye out for to see Christ crucified at Jerusalem? 
s Psal. 68 12.  She that tarried at home divided the spoil.  
It is power over that that is evil, and unto that that is good, that is in the desires of us all, and without which religion is but a Bauble, and as the Apostle Paul says, 
t 1 Cor. 15. 32.  what advantageth it me to have fought with beasts at Ephesus, if the dead rise not? So may I assume, If the principles of the Gospel are not to rise in our hearts, they are not worth the contending for. Who would go against the stream, and expose himself to lose his friends and all to vindicate or to get a Notion only? Men and their Opinions shall perish, but the word of the Lord endures for ever: and, he that doth the will of God abides for ever.  
Behold, I show you a mystery, the death of Christ is but one, and the resurrection of Christ is but one: the death of Christ is in us, and the resurrection of Christ is within us. It is without us, and Objectively propounded to us, that it may awaken and work within us. That blood of jesus Christ that cleanseth us from all sin, is shedding in us day by day: For so as that place given in to me, 
u 1 Joh. 1.  If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of his Son Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin. (i) What is not this light? we die to it, we judge it, and so are cleansed from it. And who is he that thus dies to evil and darkness? Surely none but he in whom the Son of God is come. And he in whom the Son of God is come, his death is the death of the Son, and so precious, as it is written, 
w Psalm 116. 15.  Preticious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints. This is that Sacrifice of God, even a 
x Psa. 51. 17.  broken heart, which is by no other than the appearance of the son of God in us: For if it be not upon this. Altar, and by this 
y Heb. 9 14.  eternal Spirit, it is but as the 
z Isa. 66. 3  cutting off a dog's neck.  
We are ignorant of one of the main points of the Gospel, while we know not that Christ is in us, as well as we in him. We were in him in his flesh upon the Cross; he is in us in the Spirit, and so is the Scripture verified, 
a Joh. 15.  I am in you, and you in me.  
This mighty One was shut up in us long before we knew him, and 
b Gal. 3, 23.  we are shut up in weakness and bondage unto the revelation of him: and when we know the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made comformable to his death, then are we 
c Eph, 1. 13.  sealed by the holy Spirit of promise; then do we bear in our bodies the Marks and the dying of the Lord Jesus, and his life is manifest in our mortal flesh.  
This sealing of the Spirit hath been the longing expectation of Christians of old, though we have had a wrong conception of it, (as the Disciples had of Christ's Kingdom) thinking the sealing of the Spirit to consist only in a ravishment of heart, and ecstasy of joy, but rising we know not whence, nor how. When as this joy in the holy Ghost full of glory, and this riches of assurance, is no other than the pleasant 
d Heb. 12. 11.  fruits of righteousness, springing from the death of the Lord Jesus, and the perfect work thereof in us, or from our suffering in the flesh: For 
e 1 Pet. 4. 1.  he that hath suffered in the flesh (a text that I open in this book) hath ceased from sin, saith the Apostle Peter: And, 
f Rom. 6. 5.  if we hvae been planted in the likeness of his death (saith the Apostle Paul to the Romans) we shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. And, 
g Heb. 9 28.  Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, (says the Author to the Hebrews) and to them that look for him, shall he appear, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the second time without sin unto salvation.  
To conclude this point, what God hath joined, we have severed, and pulled asunder the links of that glorious Chain, Rom. 8. 29. 30. God multiplies not acts vainly and superfluously. In every act of God, as it is in him, is all but not as it comes forth from him, and is apprehended by us. All is done in Christ to God, and it appears in Christ first to faith, but not fully to enjoyment (though in order to it) till Christ be revealed in us. All was done to God from the foundations of the world: And in all those acts the Scriptures attribute to God the higher we go, into the greater infiniteness and comprehensiveness do we ravel. Election contains 
h 1 Pet. 1. 2.  sanctification of the Spirit, & faith in it; but in the manifestation and bringing down of things to us, the latter act still gathers up and comprehends the former; yea swallows it up as the Rational life contains the Sensitive in itself eminently; so the Spirit comprehends the Letter, and the Mystery comprehends the History.  
Those that know Christ in them only immediatione virtutis, not suppositi, know not so full and glorious a proportion in him to their end. It is and must be confessed that God is, and subsists otherwise in Himself, or in the blessed Trinity, than in men. But this hinders not the immediateness of his presence and dwelling in men. But this shall suffice to be spoken to the first point, to convince that many desire the end in terms, but in deed deny it, and to hold forth some light that they may do otherwise.  
As God hath not left himself without witness to his glorious Truths in all Ages: so neither in the present Age, as in the assertions before instanced may appear, though by quarrelling Truths that stand upon the same foundation, the Assertors themselves make it manifest that either they know not what they hold in the premises as it may fall out with Disciples (for Christ's Disciples 
l John 14. 4, 5.  knew whether he went, and knew the way, as the Lord himself tells them: though they knew not that they knew so much,) or else they let it slip again, which is that the Apostle warns the Hebrews of, Chap. 2. 1. (saying, Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.) Both which proceed from the receiving these things by or from the conviction and evidence of Reason, or the letter only, (a light far below the spirit and experience thereof,) and so they know them but darkly, and as though they knew them not, & cannot see to the end of 
k 2 Cor. 3. 13.  them: whereas did they know them in Spirit, they would know them more certainly, and their capacity withal would be enabled and enlarged steadfastly to behold them, and take in more and more of their glory, without being dazzled.  
For want of which they expose themselves to that exprobration of the Apostle, 
l Gal. 5. 7.  Ye did run well, who hath hindered you? And that serious caution of the Apostle belongs to them, 
m 1 Cor. 3 10, 11.  No other foundation can any man lay, than that is laid, but let every man take heed how he builds thereon, viz. with unsuitable stuff, lest his work be burnt, or how he pull down that that is suitable, lest he be found a fighter against God. For if that old Simile of theirs be proper, That even as the Seaman draws his vessel to the rock, not the rock to him: so we do not draw God to us by prayer, or other means, but ourselves are drawn to him. Then what blasphemy is it to say, that Christ came to reveal, to declare the love of God to us not to purchase it?  
Again, it hath been said by them of old time, that Christ is not the cause, but the effect of the Father's love: If this be truth, than the love of the Father, and our peace, was not purchased but preached by Jesus Christ: for the cause cannot be purchased, but is declared by the effect.  
Thirdly, if also as it hath been said of old time, Our redemption by the blood of Christ, were but the extravagancy of grace; for my part, I dare not say what may be gathered and inferred from thence (and yet both Premises and Inference have my heart exceedingly,) but sure it is much modesty to contain within this inference, That if we be begotten again from the dead, (or recovered out of the horrible pit of sin) to the lively hope and enjoyment of of this glorious grace (which was before this redemption, and all or any the works or acts of God, and is through all and in all) and live therein. This is only that that fully answers the aim and end of God: as without this, or on this side hereof to rest in the knowledge of any plot or mystery of the way, or of Christ, without reaching together also the mystery of the ⁿ Father, is no better than Negromancy, or the smoke of the bottomless pit, it is to dwell in the borders, and flourish, and not in everlasting life.  
And lastly, if as hath been said, all the enmity be on our part, and we are to be reconciled to God, not God to us, than all that language of Atonement and Purchase, etc. is to us, and for our sakes (according as it is said, 
o Rom. 5. 11.  We have received the atonement, not God: and we are redeemed and bought 
p Rev.  to God, not of God) and is spoken to man and his Conscience, who was made under a law; and as we grow up in the knowledge of the truth, becomes resolved into a mystery, namely of suffering in the flesh, and so ceasing from sin.  
But indeed not only may some choice sentences of some few be brought in to witness to these things, there are none that hold the Principles of religion in so great bondage and obscurity in the very letter, but a testimony may be drawn out of their own mouths, as the Apostle Paul doth towards the Athenians, out of their own Poets. For if the nature of God be one & unchangeble (as all men will confess) if Jesus Christ be the same 
q Heb. 13. 8.  yesterday to day and for ever (as the letter of the Scriptures affirm,) we need seek no further evidence of these things. Then God is true, and every Man a liar.  
The law of liberty is in 
r Jam. 1. 25.  James resembled to a glass. This law of liberty is the power and Spirit of the Lord jesus in the heart of man, reflecting the glories of the Lord there, and changing us into the same appearances, according to that Scripturtures', 2 Cor, 3. last.  
Now as in a glass such as the face is that looks therein, such is the image or species that is seen there, whether the face be black, or whether it be beautiful, whether it come towards the glass, or go from it, so doth the image in the glass (for the glass hath no form, no image, no species of its own, but is wholly representative of the object that looks therein:) Even so is the apearance or representation of God in our hearts, according to the work of God in our spirits: for if thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted? But if thou dost evil, sin lies at the door. In the one the spirit of Adoption shows God as a Father, in the other the spirit of Bondage shows him an angry jealous God, according as it is written again, 
s Psa. 18. 26.  With the froward thou wilt show thyself froward, and with the upright man thou wilt show thyself upright. The witness, evidenoe, or representation of God in the spirit of man, being always according to truth, is various & changeable, according to the changeable capacity and condition of the creature, but God all the while through all these changes remains in himself unchangeable, being cbangeable only in his appearances to us, and in us. For he is not only the unchangeable glass wherein all changes are truly represented, and the unchangeable eye and light wherein & whereby they are according to their true state seen & discerned, but is the unchangeable Father of these differing & changeable lights & appearances that are thus seen by us, & represented in us, according to another text in James, chap. 1. 17. Every good and perfect gift comes down from above from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning. Yet what pity is it! not only the ordinary sort of Teachers, who take for Doctrines the Traditions of men, but even those who have separated themselves to a more diligent enquiry after truth, & seem to be of a choicer taste, yet are dazzled with the light they carry in their own Lanterns.  
But were this infirmity, shall I call it an iniquity (surely it is both, according to its respective subjects) found only in the teachers, it were not so great, though a very great mischief. But where shall we find almost a Saint that knows his own prayers, or is not afraid to meet his own dear hopes in the things we are speaking of.  
It may not be forgotten what a spirit of prayer was poured forth upon the people of God in this Kingdom some 6 or 7 years past, how our hearts were drawn forth in requests, for the Spirit, for the kingdom of Christ, for his coming in the spirit, for his Truths, to open and empty themselves upon us: these with that fervency and uncessantn●sse, as served to some in stead of prophecies of these things shortly to be to their great comfort, and encouragement to expect them. And now is all that truth we expected, come to a new form of government, whether Presbyterial or Congregational? Is this all the new light we looked for, to see to cast our cities & counties into Classes, and Provinces, or to put new names of Pastor and Teacher upon our Ministers, instead of the old names of Priests and Deacons? I say, is this all that coming of Christ in spirit we wanted, desired, expected? Hath this mortified our lusts, quickened our hearts, beautified our ways that we are at rest? Are these the changes that speak the day of Christ so notable, so terrible, that it is said, Who may abide the day of his coming? Shall the Refiners fire, and Fuller's soap find only a few superstitious Ceremonies to purge out of our Parish Assemblies? Is this the shaking of heaven and earth, to shake men out of an Episcopal Prelacy into a Presbyterial? Or say it were out of a Presbyterial form into a congregational, which is but a step further: may not, have not these changes been made, salvo nomine with good credit and advantage to the makers? O my brethren, these are but the delusions of your adversary the Devil, who if he cannot content you with his old trash, he will turn merchant of reformation, and cheat you with the superficies of it; and he doth it by some such slights as these; either he draws a veil, and casts a mist before our eyes, that we can see no further than the letter, and so think when we have attained that, we have the prize: or if he can not blindmen so fare, but that they see a mystery, and glory in spirit under the outward form and letter fare surpassing it: then he tells them, as once the jews, when the second Temple was to be built (the type of our jesus his second appearance) 
t Hag. 1. 2.  The time is not yet.  
But be not deceived, the kingdom and government of Jesus Christ is not outward, formal, & shadowy, but 
u Luk. 17. 21.  inward, real, and powerful. It is in Spirit, and within you, not in the persons of men or Ministers without you: it is that that shall destroy 
w Heb. 9 last.  sin out of the world, and all the fruits of sin, and shall replenish the subjects of it with holiness and happiness.  
And this Kingdom comes not with observation, how else should 
x Luk. 17. 20.  it come as a snare on all those that dwell upon the earth?  
The first and second appearance of Christ are not so much distinguished in time, as in excellency and glory. And that of Christ's second appearance, which is now but as a cloud of a hand-breadth, shall cover the heavens.  
All things make for this appearance of Christ: the symptoms of it are upon the world, witness 
y Hag. 2. 6.  the shaking of heaven and earth, the confusion and unsettledness that dwells on the face of all our affairs, the security of the world, their 
z 2 Pet. 3. 3, 4.  scoffing and enmity against the Spirit, and Christ's second appearance. But above all, the 
* Isa. 1. 30 2. 6. 3. 1, 5, 7, 12, 14.  wants and disappointments of the children & the bride in the hitherto provisions & appearances. Therefore lift up your heads, O ye Saints: for the day of your redemptio draws nigh.  
Now as concerning my publishing these discourses, the world hath been witness of many hard speeches against me: let the world now bear witness of the Cause: I thank God it is with me a light matter to be judged at man's day. I confess, that in much infirmity of the flesh have I delivered this Testimony, but I obtained this grace of the Lord to be faithful.  
And here you have them in no better dress then as they were delivered, weigh not words but the thing, and consider the scope: If any prejudicately stumble at the truth, at his own peril be it, I may perhaps be clearer in the expression of some things in this Preface, than in the Discourse, which being compared together may be helped. One thing I must add in this place, That whereas I say, pag. 126. That a man can be under but one administration at a time, either of flesh or spirit; my meaning is, That in that degree that a spiritual administration takes place, the fleshly administration gives place. In that measure that Christ's second appearance dawns on us, we are drawing from under his first appearance. Besides this, I know nothing liable to any dangerous mistake with the unprejudiced.  
But the time is short, and I have little satisfaction in publishing, disputing, or wrangling out these things, I desire to be enjoying them; and as I enjoy, to forget and press forwards. The Lord Himself will shortly preach Himself with clearness an● authority, and all that cloud of Envy that is upon his appearance, shall not hinder him. Even so come Lord Jesus. Amen.   

The Table of the Sermons.  

SERM, I. The foundation of a Christian, all laid in his being nothing in himself.  
john. 14. 6. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. pag. 1  
SERM. II. Something of the mystery of the ●ather, and of Christ.  
joh. 18. 25. Hitherto I have spoken to you in parables, the time cometh when I will speak to you no more in parables, but I will show you plainly of the Father. pag. 33  
SERM. III. The Truth as it is in jesus.  
john 17. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they may be sanctified through the truth. pag. 66  
SERM. IV. On the same Text.  
SERM. V The dying and the living Christian.  
Rom. 14. 8. For whether we live we live unto the Lord, or whether we die we die unto the Lord.  
SERM. VI On the same Text.  
SERM. VII. Solace for Saints in the saddest times. On Canticles the first.    

ERRATA.  
Page 39 line 9 for the [use] of a parable, read the [nature] etc. p. 102. l. 1, 2, 3. for so] in each line read see. p. 114. l. 10. for fulfilled r. satisfied. p. 118. l. ult. for eternal title r. external. p. 119, at Reas. for this Reason r. the Reason. p. 122. l. 19 for inquire r. enquired. p. 126. l. 9 for first read next. l. 13. after fleshly supply appearance.  
In the first Sermon on Genesis there is bitterness for betterness; I know not the page.   


THE Foundation of a Christians ALL Laid in his being Nothing In Himself.  GEN. 5. 24. And Enoch walked with God, and was not, for God took him. 
YOU have here the Phoenix of his days, one that doth make the Holy Ghost (as it were) to make a digression, (a digression in the story:) you have a word here that is like a Star in the mids of the Clouds; you have a Chapter before and after this, that you are ready to say when you read it, What profit is it? nothing but a Chronologie and a Genealogy, a descent of persons; but here is that which is enough to take up the meditation of a whole Chapter, Enoch walked with God, etc. Of all the rest it is said, that they lived so long, and begat so many sons and daughters, but when the Holy Ghost comes to Enoch, he saith first, of him in the 22 verse, and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah etc. and not contented to give such a touch, the Holy Ghost records again and moreover, that he walked with God and was not, for God took him.  
That which I do design, and which I hope [if the Spirit of God so design) may be for good unto your hearts, out of these words is this, viz. to hold forth unto you, a chief Character of a Christian; if so be that they were Christians from the beginning, (as they were, for they all died in the Faith; as it is said in the 11. Hebrews,) and that is this, that he is one that is not; it is a strange Character to show you what a man is, by telling you, he is not. This is the very main thing of a Christian; the most essential thing that can be affirmed of him, that he is not, Enoch walked with God, and was not &c.  
First, for the meaning of the words, there is no great difficulty in them; the Phrase is common of walking [that walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit] but what is the meaning of this, he was not. It is one thing in the Letter, & another in the Spirit, it hath both a literal and mystical meaning; he was not, that is, he was translated; so we find in the 11. Heb. 5. where it is said, By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death, and was not found, and so it follows in the Text, he was nor, for God took him. But there is also a Spiritual meaning of it, and that is this, Enoch was not, that is, he in himself was not; but his own being, excellency and glory was passed away, he was nothing, but what he was, he was in Christ: Christ was to him his life, his person, and his all; in the Original it runs thus, Enoch walked with God, and was not he; according as the Apostle saith in the Epistle to the Galathians, Nevertheless I live, yet not I, etc. So it is said here, Enoch walked with God, and not he, for God translated him in the Spirit, translated him into Jesus Christ, and so a Believer is one in Jesus Christ, he is nothing in himself, his self is passed away, he hath got a new self. God is his self, Christ is his self, Now that same former sense of God translating him literally, that was but an outward signification to the world (as it were) of that which was enoch's real glory, Enoch was passed out of the flesh into the spirit, out of himself into God, when he was upon earth; and God to signify this to the world, takes him from the sight of men, and translates him locally; This was a Figure of that which was done in the spirit before, and it is far the greatest to be translated in the spirit: If a man were carried into heaven, if he were not translated inspirit, he would have no joy in heaven, for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; and therefore we are said to be translated out of darkness into light, and out of the Kingdom of Satan, into the Kingdom of his dear Son. And thus having made way, I shall come to observe something out of the words.  
First, here is the translation of a Saint, and then here is the Author, and Principle of that translation. The translation of a Saint; the point that I would observe from thence, is this, Observe. That every true Christian, he is translated out of his own being, into a being in God, and this is the death of a Christian; Enoch walked with God, and he was not, he is dead unto the world, and he is dead unto the Law, he is dead unto his own righteousness, and unto all created glory and excellency, but he is alive unto God: a true Christian, he is not, that is, he is not in himself, his self is passed away, he hath got another self, a new self, and that is God, instead of his old self, instead of his rotten self; you shall see this in the 7. Rom. the latter end, So then with my mind, I myself serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Mark you there; The flesh, a Believer counts none of himself; as it is in Rom. 8. 9 You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if the spirit of God dwell in you; and so in the 6. Chap. of that Epistle, How can we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein; Sin is said to be condemned in the flesh, in the 8. Chap. 3 v. That which I desire chief to bind myself unto, is this, to show unto Believers, that if so be they be true Believers, they have a being in God, and in the Spirit, yea, an entire being, & they are to have no being at all in the flesh, I say, if so be they are true Believers, they have an entire being in God, and the Spirit, and are to account themselves to have no being, no interest at all in the flesh. There are they that speak of a fleshly, and a spiritual part in Believers, and this same spiritual part they look upon as that which should be encouraged, that to which all the promises belong, but many times they cannot find this same spiritual part, and so can have no comfort, as in time of tentation; (and I beseech you consider that, for it will be a sufficient argument against the going on in such a kind of apprehension as that is, of a spiritual part, and a fleshly, and the like, (taking this spiritual part to be grace in the act; for when they find not grace in the act, they cannot take any comfort at all, than they ●ake up themselves in the same heap and dunghill with the world,) but if God made out this to you, that you have an entire being in the spirit, and that it is possible for a Saint to retreat into the spirit so wholly, as to gather himself entirely, and to gather up all his interest into the spirit; this would be much to the relief & comfort of a poor soul.  
Now I must show you what are the fruits and consequences of this, and then come to show you the way that God brings his people to this.  
First, I will show you the benefit of a Christians losing himself in the flesh; this is the benefit of it, he loseth sin, by losing that being in the flesh; pray mark it, he doth lose his sin, and the reason is this, because it is only flesh, that is the freehold of sin: and when a man is once gone out of the flesh, he is gone out of sins Territories, out of sins Dominions, and he loseth his sin by this means, and that in a twofold sense. First, sin cannot be charged upon him, as you shall see the Apostle for it, in the 7. Rom. So then it is no more I, but sin that dwelleth in me. Pray mark it: Why not I? But because I am gone out of the flesh, I am gone out of the fleshly principle, I do not own myself; I have a being out of myself; I have a being in the spirit, and there can no guilt or sin follow me; the avenger of blood cannot pursue him further than flesh, for being in the spirit he hath got hold of the Horns of the Altar. Will you condemn the Son of God? The heir of Glory? Is Christ a Sinner? Can the Son of God be under the wrath of God? Why, he is ceased to be in himself, he is in Christ.  
And then secondly, Sin it cannot rule over him, he loseth his sin that way, He that is born of God keeps himself, that the evil one toucheth him not, he that abideth in him sinneth not: and divers such places in the 1. Epistle of John, for it is only the flesh that the Devil hath a title unto, and that sin hath a title unto; sin hath title indeed to the Old Adam, and to all the Sons of Old Adam; as they are natural, and as they are flesh and blood, they are the slaves and vassals of Sin and Satan; but the new creature, he hath nothing to do withal: It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. You may understand it this way also, when the Devil comes to tempt a Saint that lives in the Spirit, he doth as good as come and bid the Son of God to fall down and Worship him.  
2. As he loseth his sin by this means, so he is set free from death by this means, set free from condemnation, the wrath of God cannot seize upon him, This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. God cannot be displeased with his well beloved Son. When a man is once in Christ, there is nothing issues out from God but love, nothing but smiles, and good words, and good wishes; this is the benefit of a man being in Christ, of a man not being in himself, of a man ceasing to be in the flesh; he loseth his sin, and doth escape death and judgement. And therefore it is, that this same Enoch here, (as a pledge to all other that walk in his steps) he was translated that he should not see death itself, because death is as it were an Emblem of the punishment of sin (an Emblem I say; for if the damned had no worse punishment than the death of the body, it were no punishment, but death hath a form of punishment,) therefore Enoch was translated that he should not see death, because he was not, that is, he was not himself, he was in Christ, who is the Resurrection, and the Life.  
Yea a 3. benefit: whatsoever tribulation a Christian is in, he may rejoice in it, if he be not; & this is indeed the very sum of his comfort, the sum of his happiness, that whatsoever estate and condition he seems to be in outwardly, yet he hath a retreating place, in which he can look upon all these things that befall his flesh, and can rejoice in them, and be above them; when a man shall see that these afflictions that are upon him are for physic, not for punishment, he can withdraw from them all, and he can be a Spectator of them, and not suffer at all; he is active in all, he doth withdraw himself from under all; it is true, saith he, this is upon my flesh, but yet he doth possess and enjoy an other state, and another life▪ and another personality in the Spirit; he is in Christ, and as I am in Christ, there is no condemnation towards me, I am sure, there is nothing but love towards me, this is the highest comfort that can be, for a man to be able to withdraw himself from all sin and misery, as if he had no part in it, though it be upon him; this is that the Holy Ghost speaks in the 91. Psalm 1. 2. it is spoken expressly there, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the mosthigh shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty; and that is he that dwells in the spirit, this is fulfilled many times in the literal understanding of it, that the Saints do escape when Common Calamities are in the world, but there is a fulfilling this in the Spirit; when the spiritual Being of a Believer can stand and look upon his fleshly Being, as if the sufferings thereof were not upon him, but upon another person, and this is the Experience of the Saints; I am persuaded I speak to the Experience of some Saints. And thus a Christian evades all, shifts all; charge sin upon him, he shakes it off, it doth not belong to him: Lay afflictions upon him, he escapes them all, & is indemnified; not that a believer doth therefore take boldness to sin, because of this; No, there is none doth more abhor Sin, than this person I now speak of; & the discovery that God makes to such persons, is directly contrary & destructive to Sin.  
Now the next thing is to show 
The Meant  you by what means God makes a Christian not to be himself, and in himself, and that is by God revealing another self within a Christian; by this doth God put a Christian out of himself, by substituting and revealing another self in that Christian. What is that? A Spiritual self, that is God himself in Jesus Christ, he becomes a new Principle in that same soul, a Principle of life and of action; a Principle of righteousness and of strength. It may be thought to be done otherwise, but we shall find, though God carry the work under another form and appearance, yet this is indeed the virtue and power that doth the deed, & turns a man out of himself; it is God's discovery of himself to the soul; we may think that God doth it by the Terrors of the Law, as there, when the Commandment came I died, & I through the Law am dead unto the Law etc. 
Rom. 7. 9  we may think, God doth it by discovering the vanity of our hearts, and the weakness of our Principles, for that they cannot make their party good with Sin, but notwithstanding we are overcome: all this is true, but the soul is not carried forth powerfully and effectually to part with it own self, till God do pawn himself to the soul, to be instead of himself, till God say to the soul, forsake thyself, and I will be unto thee instead of thyself; I will be thy Righteousness and thy strength; I will be instead of the Law; till than it is impossible that the soul should part with self, and should not be. So that it is by the glory of God appearing in the soul, that the soul is crucified and turned out of itself; even as it was with Christ; he knew if he died, and went away in the flesh, he should come again in the spirit, and that he saith himself, and discourseth of it in the Gospel according to St. John 12. 24. If the seed fall into the ground etc. He that loveth this life shall lose it; but he that hateth this life, shall have life eternal. Upon this account did Christ yield up himself cheerfully to death. Therefore it is said, that Jesus Christ by the eternal spirit offered up himself; it was by the eternal spirit, that reveals the glorious design of the Father in his death, that Christ was brought to yield himself unto death. Now the degrees by which this death of self is accomplished, are these three.  
First, God doth make a discovery to the soul of the rotteness of old self, and of the bitterness of that self, that is tendered to us of God's self; this discovery is made to us, and God doth together therewith reveal himself in us; he reveals himself in us; and shows himself to be our Righteousness and our Strength. The soul sees itself possessed of God, and sees God dwelling in him, & now the soul knows it cannot be found naked. Now saith the soul, I may part with myself when I will, for I have a better self.  
And secondly, Hereupon the soul hath all its life in God, and his heart is set upon God; he sees God within him, and now his eyes are turned to this Emanuel, God dwelling in his flesh; and now he admires not the things he did before; he did admire other men, and their enlargements and abilities; he admired their affections and expressions in prayer, he admired such and such acts of piety and charity (which a man may do and seek himself all this while;) he admired the flesh, but now he hath no confidence or delight in the flesh; he looks wholly upon God, and admires him, and admires that ever God should dwell with man, that God whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain; that he should take up such an heart, that he should become the righteousness of such a creature.  
3. Hereupon follows passion & action, 1. The soul hereupon hath all its comforts from God, and directs all his courses to God; and he saith now, Ashur shall not save us, we will not ride upon Horses; we have made mention of other names, and other Lords, but now by thee only we will make mention of thy name, even thine: so he hath sweet delight and acquiescence in God. 2. The soul doth all to the glory of God; if a man live in the flesh, he will be acting in the flesh; but if a man live in God, and live in the spirit, and live in that unseen righteousness, and upon that invisible strength, than all his application of himself is unto God, and so he walks not after the flesh, but after the spirit, and all his waiting will be for this God; if at any time he is insensible of his presence, he waits upon God, he saith not, if it werethus' withme, I should behappy: as Martha said, if thou hadst ●●n here, my Brother had not died; (she considered not, that Christ in the spirit had power now to recover from death, as well as keep from death) but the soul saith; if God will shine upon me, I shall be comforted; if he hid his face I am troubled; it is not I will do this, and I will do that, but God will do this and that; and it is not, if I had such means, I should have power and get ground over my corruptions, but if God arise, his enemies shall be scattered: And such a soul is dead to the Law, and the Righteousness of the Law, and dead to the workings of it, and sees that the Law cannot give strength; it is God, that of his grace, is strength to the poor soul, and thus the soul hath entertained God as his guest, and let the Sodomites come and compass about Lot's House, he minds them not; the soul sees nothing in comparison, but his soul pants, as the Hart, after the water brook; and this is the condition of a soul that is not.  
Now if you ask me the reason of this, why a true Christian is one that is not: I answer, this is the reason of it, because God is all, and he will be known to be all, he will have his people to know so, and will have it held forth that he is all; and therefore there must be a dying thus, and a withering, and decaying, and a going out of a man's self. I know no other reason but this, why God did ordain that same state of nature, before the state of grace; why he revealed Adam before Christ; but only this, that so God might make it knwon to us, that he is all in all. For howsoever God was all in all, and would have been all in all, and could not be otherwise; for was there any thing before God, or is there any thing, whereof it may be said, it is besides God? But yet God had not been manifested to be all in all, so as he is by causing the Creature to die to its self; as if God had created light, and never created darkness, light had been light, but light is known by darkness: So God would have been all howsoever, but he is known to be all by this same form of the creature dying in himself, dying in those abilities which are Gods; for we have nothing but what is Gods, and what he gives us, and is to us; but God hereby holds forth himself to be all to us, after lower and darker forms; when removed and corrupted, we see still another and higher blessedness in God; and it is likewise for to give us our taste; he that hath tasted the sour, is fit to taste the sweet; he that hath seen the fading of the flower, is better prepared to see a living activity; so we have known God in nature, we are hereby prepared to admire God's discovery in the Gospel.  
Now before the Use of this point, there is only one thing more I will mention, and that is this, That the death of a Believer is into God, as I may so say, even as the seed that dies as a seed, but it dies into a flower that is better than the seed, so doth a Believer do, that is the term of his death: (So now I have explained all that I think of to you;) now the Use is this.  
1. It serves to discover and disgrace the Religion of most men that are not acquainted with this same dying to themselves: you have many, especially in these times, that do come under this search and trial, and will be found too light, and there are two sorts: some who have advanced a Reformation from that same knowledge which is come abroad in these times, they have set up a form of Religion in their Families, and it may be they are fallen into a form of Communion with Christians; others are such as are only state Reformers, and the time-Reformers: Now both of them, although there may be gradual difference, yet both of them discover themselves, that they are of the earth by this: they are to be known by their conceits of themselves, by their magnifying their duties, and their forms they are in. As a Christian ceaseth to be, so do all things cease to be anything to him, and he doth no more admire an high form in Religion, than he doth admire himself; all things are crucified to him, as well as he is crucified to them. But many are like the multitude that Christ spoke to, in the 5. of Mat. They will be very Zealous & Jealous, lest others should destroy the Law, who preach the Gospel purely in the spirit; and why are They zealous of the Law, but because they think they can keep the Law; they know only some lower forms of the Law, (but if they knew the Highest forms of the Law it were all one,) for they are censorious of others, and will persecute others, if they will not come up to their form: whereas you shall hear a  Paul say, that Circumcision it nothing etc. Paul saw that a man might be a circumcised Jew, & yet lie down in hell with an uncircumcised Gentile: but others by their censoriousness of others, manifest, that they are not ceased to be in the flesh: the truth is, he that doth know God, and doth worship God in spirit, hath such low thoughts of all manner of outward forms, that he doth neither judge himself nor others, in the least kind by them, for he sees that which is so much beyond, and he is pressing towards that still; he takes heed how he riseth up in the morning and blesseth himself, or his neighbour, in his form: for he sees much uncircumcision of heart in the best form.  
The next is a Use of direction to poor creatures that see and subscribe to the truth: That true Christianity gins in self-denial, and are saying, what may we do, that we may be after this manner, that we may not be in ourselves: that the next word will tell you, God took him: Enoch had been as other men, but that God took him; he had been in the flesh, and had confidence in the flesh, and had been some body in his own eyes, if so be God had not taken him; so that this you are to wait for, till God take you up: you cannot bring down the spirit, a man cannot make an hair of his head white or black, a man cannot make a thought, a man cannot mould one desire or affection in him, it is beyond his power; this is according to that I spoke in the opening of the point, somewhat toward this, namely, that it is God revealing himself and his own glory to the soul, that engageth the soul to forget his own kindred, and his father's house: Come faith God, thou shalt be married honourably; I will marry thee myself, forget thyself, forget thy sins, so indeed the death of a Christian is a sweet death: and as the Psalmist saith, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints. God comes and takes that place that before Self had; and therefore you have the death of a Saint expressed in this manner, Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. God is there to receive the soul, or else the soul would never be content to go out of the body, and so it is here spiritually.  
And the 3. and last Use is this, A Hint or Discovery to what end death is ordained, that formal death that we look upon with so much fear, and with such a sad reflection upon ourselves, when we think of ourselves. I must ere long die, and be among the dead. This is our Ignorance, what is death? What is it for? It is but an outward form and signification of that work, that God in the spirit of a Saint doth every day; for what is the life of a Saint, but a continual dying into the hands of God, his Righteousness expires into the Righteousness of God; God increaseth in him, and himself decreaseth; he hath less thoughts of himself, and his own strength, and hath higher thoughts of God; he doth less know himself after the flesh, and according to outward appearances, and he more judgeth of himself as he is in God, and as in Christ Jesus; so that a Believer dies daily, and when God hath finished his whole work upon Mount Zion, than he will withdraw the form of death; when he hath brought his people to die to themselves and to the world, as he will in the latter days, than death shall be swallowed up; for as we see how men are when they are dead, they mind no more relations; a Child no longer observes his Father when he is dead, ceaseth to act to the relation, and ceaseth to act to the objects of this world; strew fine sweet flowers before a dead corpse, the corpse smells them not; and bring good cheer before dead corpse, the corpse tastes it not; so shall Saints be to sin and this world: And thus I am persuaded God would not have continued death in the world, since he hath reconciled the world, but to teach the world. And what are all these changes when a soul is gone to God before, is it any terrible thing for such an one to die? It was the speech of one of precious memory in this City, when he was dying; saith he, I shall but change my place, not my company; he walked as Enoch did: So it is with us in all our changes that befall us, they are but the outward forms and significations of that which is doing every day, therefore we are not to judge according to the sight of our eyes, not reckon ourselves by our duties, and our graces and performances; not reckon by that power we see in ourselves to resist sin, or act in duties, but look to an invisible presence of the spirit in oursouls, that can never be taken from us, which Moths cannot corrupt, and where Thiefs cannot break through and steal.   

SOMETHING OF THE MYSTERY OF THE FATHER AND OF CHRIST.  JOHN. 16. 25. Hitherto have I spoken to you in Parables; the time cometh when I will speak to you no more in Parables, but I will show you plainly of the Father. 
THese are the words of our Saviour a little before his suffering, when he spoke not upon his own life, but upon the life and comfort of his Disciples, whose hearts were full of heaviness: and much ado he had to keep them up from sinking; therefore no question but Jesus Christ did groan in Spirit, and did go down deep, that he might bring up something from the bottom to refresh their hearts; & tobear them up against that hour that was coming upon him, their Lord and Master, and upon them, in being deprived of him: & therefore we find him here very copious, as well as very sweet, bestowing the whole 14. 15. & 16. Chapters upon them.  
Among all the comforts Christ doth minister unto them, this is one, and a chief one, That they should see him again, and he would hid himself from them but a little while: Not only his going away was for their advantage, but he would come again to them. This he tells them often, especially here at the 17. verse of this Chapter. A little while, and ye shall not see me; and again, a little while, and ye shall see me.  
And to let pass the rectfying of their understandings concerning these promises, and these undertake of his; he tells them what he will do for them when he sees them again, and what shall be their condition in that day: At the 22. verse, in general he tells them, Their hearts should rejoice, and no man should take their joy from them: And particularly; verse, 23. In that day you shall ask me nothing, (saith he) verily, verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will do it. They shall have all their Petitions; It shall be a day of grace and favour, such as Herod's birthday was, when he promised he would give Herodias his Daughter the half of his Kingdom: but this is not restrained to half of the Kingdom; for we know, the spirit himself is promised to those that ask him; & the Spirit is the Kingdom of God, it is God, and his Kingdom and all.  
Another benefit, and advantage of that time when he would see them again, is this, that I have read to you in the Text; I will show you plainly of the Father. Hitherto have I spoken to you in Parables, the time cometh that I will speak no more in Parables, but will show you plainly of the Father.  
Object. But it will be said, Christ spoke in Parables to the Multitude, but he spoke not in Parables to his Disciples; or if he did, he opened the Parables to them; as it's said, When be came into the house, he opened the Parable of the tares; and so he did other Parables.  
Solu. I conceive, this Scripture meaneth other kinds of Parables than those: for in such Parables Christ spoke not at that time: but under Parables, here is meant, not only those very portions of Scripture, which have the form of Parables; but the whole Preaching and Ministry of Christ, as Man; and not only so, but the whole Ministration and Appearance of God in the Flesh of Christ, may be called a Parable; and thus were they Parables that he had spoken to them in? I have spoken to you hitherto in Parables; but the time cometh when I will speak no more to you in Parables, but I will show you plainly of the Father. And this plain showing of the Father, is when Christ comes in the Spirit. While a Believer knows Christ only after the flesh, he knows the love of God, and the Covenant of God, and the things that concern his peace, only in a Parable: but when God comes to do those things in him, in the Spirit, which were done to him in Christ, in the flesh; Why then doth God show himself unto him plainly. This shall suffice in brief to have opened the words unto you.  
The parts of the Text are these two.  
1. Here is the casting up (as it were) of the Dispensation or Administration of Christ in the flesh: It is cast up, what it amounts unto; and that is a speaking to the world in Parables.  
2. Here is the glory of Christ's appearing in the Spirit, in the heart of a Believer, and that is a plain Demonstration, or showing of the Father.  
In this latter are these two things.  
1. Here is the Object of Divine Discoveries, and that is the Father; I will show you plainly of the Father.  
2. Here is the Quality of the Spirits Discovery: it is a plain Discovery.  
Doctr. I shall speak first of the former, & shall observe unto you this point.  
That the Preaching and Administration of Christ in the flesh, was but a speaking to us, as it were, in Parables.  
Hitherto (saith Christ) have I spoken to you in Parables: The time cometh when I shall no more speak to you in Parables. If we inquire what a Parable is, we shall find that the Use of a Parable doth agree with the Nature of this Discovery, or Appearance of God in the Flesh of Christ; for to this shall I confine my Discourse.  
A Parable is this; when there is a latent sense under patent words; When there are words outwardly sounding one thing, and a sense under those words, that is not conceived by the Vulgar understanding: This is a Parable: It is a Riddle; It is a dark saying. And certainly the Wise man in the beginning of his Book of Proverbs, or Parables, (as he calls them) wherein are the Treasures of the Gospel; He calls the Gospel there, Parables. Prov. 9 6. Now that Christ in the flesh, is such a Parable, may be made good unto you, thus.  
There is one thing doth appear outwardly, and runs into the senses of men. And there is another thing held forth under that, which few do perceive, but those that are singularly taught of God: That which is visible and obvious, and runs into the senses of men, is a Carnal transaction. A Bargain between God and Christ: The do and sufferings of Christ in the flesh; and by these do and sufferings, our Life, our Justification and our Peace. This is the outward form, (as it were,) this is the Parable. Now what is that which is held forth under this Parable?  
There are these two things that are veiled and hid under this Parable, which most men do not set their eyes upon.  
And the first is this; The Love of the Father: This is scarce eyed by most men, but they think that the work of their salvation proceeds from the kind heart of Jesus Christ; and so they look upon his Humane Heart and Affections, as the Root and Original of their Redemption: Whereas Christ tells us in this Chapter; I say not, that I will pray for you, for the Father himself loves you; As who should say, though I should hold my peace, the Father himself loves you. Now this is that which few men see in and under this Parable.  
Christ Jesus in his dying for man, was set up by God in the place of God, to show us the great love that God did bear unto man: I say, he was set up by God in the place of God, and that not to show (his own) love only, but to show the Father's Love; and therefore we find these names given unto Christ, and these things spoken of him; That he is the brightness of the Father's Glory, and the express Image of his Person: And we saw his Glory (saith John) as the Glory of the only begotten Son of God.  
The Apostles and Spiritual men saw the Love of God held forth through the do and sufferings of Christ. And therefore it is said, (I beseech you mark it) in the 5. of John; The Father judgeth no man; but hath committed all judgement to the Son, that men might honour the Son, as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father that hath sent him. God is he that must inherit all honour and glory to eternity: but he hath for the present set up Christ Jesus, to make himself known unto the world. It was not, that Christ should make himself known, or that we should lie down in the Discovery of Christ, but that by Christ, the Father might be known, and discovered to us, and his love; and therefore, it is said; That this is life eternal, to know thee to be the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. The meaning is not, as if it were not enough to know the Father; but that there is no knowing of the Father but by Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent for that end. So that Jesus Christ hath fulfilled his Ministration when he hath made known the Father, and then is the Kingdom delivered up by the Son, yea, by all the Sons of God: when once they come to know God by Christ, they deliver up the Kingdom from Christ unto God, even unto the Father. This is the first thing that is hid under this same Parable. Christ bears the name, but God doth the thing; Christ saith, I came to do the work of him that sent me. God saith unto Christ; thou shalt make me known unto the world.  
But the second thing that is hid under this Parable, is, the doing of the like works in the Saints, as were done in Christ Jesus. This is that which they only see and receive, that are delivered from the delusions of Antichrist. Antichrist cries up Christ in the flesh; cries up that same man Christ Jesus, that died for our sins and risen again for our Justification; but he knows not Christ in the Spirit; he knows not Christ, and him crucified, in the Saints; He knows not the power of his Resurrection in Believers; He knows not the exceeding greatness of that power which wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, working in us: in both these respects, is Christ's Ministration in the flesh, a speaking in Parables.  
First, because the Gospel seems to run thus, as that Christ hath done this and that for us, whereas indeed it was God in Christ; God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, 2 Cor. 5. before end. And whereas the Gospel seems to deliver to us a History only of what Christ Jesus hath done for us in the flesh; It doth indeed hold forth the Model and Platform of that salvation that is carried on in the spirit, and is revealed in the breasts of the Saints; I say, that is wrought and revealed there suitably and agreably to all those steps and stages, to all those points and periods you shall find in the Letter. The same things are done in the Saints in the Spirit, that were done in, and upon Christ in the flesh.  
And now I have opened this point unto you; if you require any reason for it, why God did speak to us in a Parable, and why he shows us things as in a glass; why he shows us rather the Image of things, than the things themselves; Reason. it is because of our weakness; it is because of our childishness.  
It was the manner of the Heathen to put wisdom into Parables, to put their wise Observations into fables, into pleasant tales and stories, for these two reasons.  
First, that they might hid wisdom from the Vulgar.  
2. That they might the better insinuate it into their Children, and those that were ingenuous.  
And these two Reasons may be given, why God teaches the world by Parables: It is for their weakness sake; It is to take them and lead them by the hand, to speak to them in childish things, in things within their own sphere and understanding. So God hath done to us in the flesh of Christ. You will believe a man loves you, if he will die for you; you will believe a Creditor will be reconciled to you, if he pay the debt himself: Why, behold thus doth God satisfy man. 2. Rea. God doth this to hid these things from the profane of the world: I thank thee O Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise, and hast revealed them unto babes etc. And therefore if you observe it, Christ did commonly speak to the Multitude in Parables: they had Parable upon Parable, they had rind upon rind, one shell upon another, that they could not easily come to the kernel. And the Reason is this, that wicked and profane men may scoff and jeer at the Letter and Parable, but God doth keep the truth from that contempt and obloquy. The outward Court is given to the Gentiles to be trodden down: God makes it not much matter; men may tread down outward forms, and God may let them profane them; but there is a place where none come that defile, and that is the Spirit, the truth, as it is in Jesus: God's Truth is Himself. We know that precious things have covering upon covering, they have lappings one upon another's jewels have Caskets to put them in; though the Casket fall into the dirt, yet the jewels will be kept clean. So profane and wicked men may preach and receive the Gospel in a Parable, in the outward Letter. But what hast thou to do to take my word in thy mouth? the word in the Spirit; for it is that hidden wisdom that is prepared for our glory; as the Apostle saith. 1 Cor. 2.  
Use. Now all the Use of this point I shall make to you, is this; to desire you to look into yourselves, whether you know any more than Parables; whether you can do any more than say over Parables.  
Examine yourselves by those two things spoken of before. Do you discern God under the form of the man Christ Jesus? Do you see God coming forth unto you in Christ? And then do you find the Gospel to be realized in your hearts and spirits? Do you find these transactions to be transacted over again in you? The death of Christ in you? The life of Christ in you? The Resurrection of Christ in you?  
Now a further thing I aim at, is this, and this specially; The plain showing of the Father by the Spirit, Hitherto have I spoken to you in Parables; the time cometh when I will speak no more to you in parables, but will show you plainly of the Father.  
I shall only speak, at this time, of the Object of Divine Discoveries, and that is the Father; The time cometh that I will show you plainly of the Father: So that the point is this.  
Doctr. That the adequate Object (or the whole and entire Object) of the Discovery of Christ and the Gospel, is the Discovery of the Father unto us.  
This our Saviour plainly intimates here, in saying; The time comes that I will show you plainly of the Father. For if there had been any thing else that they had needed to have known, he would have mentioned that also; This is life eternal (saith Christ, John. 17. 3.) to know thee the only true God, and jesus Christ whom thou hast sent; to know thee by Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent; as I told you before, for we cannot know the Father but by Christ.  
But more particularly and expressly in john 14. 8. saith Philip there; Lordshew us the Father, and it sufficeth us; pray mark: As Pilate, and other wicked men, (as Balaam, and the High Priest) many times spoke things, that they knew not all that was in what they spoke. Sodoth Philip here; he speaks more truth, than he is ware; Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us; It is most true, and Christ never contradicts him; he never says no, it would not suffice to know the Father. The Father is the whole object of divine Discoveries. The Father's Love; as in the 6. of john 29. This is the will of him that sent, that of all those he hath given me, I should lose none. The Father's Person: No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. This than I say, that which was the scope of Christ's coming down from Heaven, must needs be the adequate scope of the Gospel: But to declare the Father, was the scope of Christ's coming down from Heaven; to declare the Father's Person, as well as the Fathers Love. Therefore he is called the express Image of his Person: God did not send the Image of his Person, but that we should know his Person by that Image. Many take up the Image and the Picture, and they never know the Person; as when they take up Christ in the flesh; for indeed Christ in the Spirit is one and the fame with the Father; knowest thou not that I am in the Father & the Father in me? as Christ discourseth in that 14 of joh. 9 10, 11. Have I been so long time with you? And hast thou not seen me Philip? He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father. And therefore are these expressions in Scripture, of believing in God by Christ, and coming to God by Him, and through Him: Jesus Christ Himself in the flesh, is but a form in which the Father doth present himself unto the world: But what is the Father, you wilsay? Ans. The Father here is God in Himself, bringing forth all things within Himself, possessing all things with in Himself. God as he is, this is the Father; you know that is the expectation of the Saints to see God as he is; jesus Christ, and all that God is to man in jesus Christ, it is in a form descending, or in a condescending form; Righteousness is such a form, Sanctification is such a form, Redemption is such a form; All these are but forms in which God descends unto us; they are not God Himself as he is. And there shall come a time when these forms shall vanish, when as the Saints shall hear no more of Righteousness, or of Sanctification; for Righteousness what is it, but a relative word that relates to sin? when sin shall be no more, righteousness shall be no more; Sanctification is a relative word, that signifies peculiarity and separation. This refers to common things, and unclean things; but when there shall be no unclean nor common thing, but God shall be all in all, and all things shall be in a form or appearance, suitable to the form wherein they were in God, than the notion of Sanctification shall cease; so than the Father is the journey's end of a Christian. That which is first is last, and that which is last was first: The Father is first of all. There was a time when God lived only in Himself, and possessed all things in a divine form in Himself. His own Deity was his Heaven, and was all unto him. The time cometh, when these things that are brought forth in a distinction from God in proper beings of their own, shall be returned and married to him, and united to that Original whence they sprang, and live in his life, and shine in his glory. And so the Father, who is the first, shall be the last also. The end must find the beginning; as the year is described to you, by such an emblem of a Snake, taking his tail in his mouth, the end running into the beginning; all things came from God, and God by all things shows Himself. All things are Pictures and Emblems of God, and especially Christ jesus; and the Saints they show forth the virtues and the praises of God, but all these things they must, they do wheel about, until the end doth find the beginning, and so God shall be all in all: When God hath made known himself by his Son unto the Saints, then shall God cease administering any longer to the world, as he hath done by our flesh, and by the man Christ jesus; but God Himself shall be all in all. So that by the Father here I mean not a Person in the Trinity, but rather the whole Trinity considered essentially & originally as containing in them that state & appearance of things which was their first and Original glory, which is said in Scripture to be in the form of God, which this present state and appearance waits to be clothed withal, and to be swallowed up in, so as to subsist, act and live in that, and not in their own, yet their own not to be destroyed by this, nor mixed or confounded by this, but clothed upon with this; and so of Christ it is said, that he shall come in the glory of the Father: Christ is not destroyed, but is still, and keeps his distinct being, but this being lives, acts and appears in the Glory of the Father.  
Reason. Now if you ask me the Reason of this: why! is it not all the Reason in the world, that God should only be, and only appear, and only be glorified? He may lend his glory for a time, and may lend his name for a time unto others, that they may make him known unto the world; as a King may lend his Kingly Honour to some Lieutenant in another Country (as suppose in Ireland) that so that Country may be Conquered for him, and Governed for him; but when it is done, we know all derivative power and authority, and names whatsoever, do yield up to those from whom they receive their Commission, when they have done, that for which they had their Commission; and so it is in this case.  
Use. To apply this same truth, I desire you in the fear of God, not to mistake me, nor wilfully to pervert what I say. Let us take heed of Idolising even the humanity of jesus Christ Himself; of Idolising his do or his sufferings; We see God through these do or sufferings of jesus Christ for us, as through a Glass; but it is no Blasphemy to say, that a Believer may come to see a Love of God born unto him, above and before the mafestation of it in the sufferings of jesus Christ. He may see it in God Himself, though by Christ. Do not think you know as much as you need to know, and as much as is the interest of your life and happiness to know, in knowing the flesh of Christ, in knowing the man, Christ jesus; for unless you know God in his appearance under that form; you mistake Christ, and make him an Idol: I am nothing (saith Christ,) the flesh profits nothing; He that sends, is greater than he that is sent, Christ saith so himself: If God be greater than Christ, than Christ himself is but a Medium, through which you come to be acquainted with God, and in which you must not rest: There is no comparison between that which is infinite. If so be that Christ himself; if the man Christ jesus were eternal life, he would not have said; The Father is greater than 1 No, know the Father by Christ is eternal life. Take heed of being offended, when you shall hear such like Doctrine as this; that the sufferings of jesus Christ in the flesh for us, were, as it were, but a Parable in which God spoke to us; and that God's Heart was not set upon the very having of a little blood for the sins of his people; but that herein he premeditatedly, if we look upon it in the Original contrivance, would commend his love to us, and herein if we relate to the lapsed estate, he considers us poor creatures as we are, and speaks to our childishness and weakness; who being made under such a Law, and having incurred the curse, could not see how there could be reconciliation without bloodshedding. Be not offended, when as you hear that there is a greater work done, in the Spirit, in the Saints, than was the offering up the flesh of Christ: That there is a greater Sacrifice offered up to God, when as the old Adam; man's own Righteousness and Strength is crucified, and is offered up unto God; I say, a greater Sacrifice, than the very Sacrificing of the flesh of Christ himself; that is, if you take the Sacrifice of Christ without the Mystery; for that Sacrifice was indeed the root, as well as the figure of this same Sacrifice.  
2. And in the second place; If so be you need be warned of Idolising the Humanity of jesus Christ; we had need to warn you of Idolising other forms.  
There are two sorts of forms, wherein God appears to the world: There is the Humanity of Christ, which is the first and the Highest, and the most immediate Form and Appearance of God; and there are Ordinances in which God appears, as it were at the second hand, and by reflection; as when the Sun appears in the Rainbow, or when it makes another Sun like itself in a watery cloud, which is, but the Sun by reflection; so Ordinances are but the shadow, as it were, of the Image; Christ is the Image of the Father's Person, (he is but the Image, neither) but the Ordinances are but shadows of the Image, therefore take heed of Idolising forms; your interest lies in knowing the Father, not in knowing any form whatsoever; and take heed of censuring and judging spiritual discoveries. Those that should have told the Disciples, that there was a better thing than the presence of Christ with them in the flesh; certainly they would have given much offence to them: Take heed of being offended, if we say, there is a higher thing than Ordinances, then fasting, then praying, yea, we may say, there is a higher thing than believing, and that is seeing the Father, and knowing the Father without a form, manifesting and revealing himself in his own immediate light. Now this I desire you to wait for and seek for, and to press towards this point, and that for these Reasons.  
1. Because every form hath weakness in it, and therefore you cannot rest in the knowing God in a form.  
2. Every form hath some unlikeness in it, which comes to pass through our mistake: and certainly your great Clarks do so criticise upon the Letter of the Scripture, that they are by the Letter many times led out of the way, and from the mind of the spirit: and those that look upon Christ, and calculate all the actions and sufferings of Christ with an eye of Reason: What a strange thing do they make of the Gospel? They make it a notional thing. Every form hath weakness, and an unlikeness in it; you will never see God as he is, till you see him without a form, till you see him in Himself.  
3. I shall show you what are some of the actings of that state of Believers, when they shall come to be past form: Christ tells you some of them here, John 16. In that day (saith Christ) you shall ask me nothing: There is one; But what then? Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you; This is another. This is a Believer that is come out of a form, that is gone beyond this form, when he goes to God, not in the name of an outward Mediator only, but he goes to God in the same Spirit, in that inward unction that is upon him; for that I conceive Christ meaneth here; whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name. Now every Believer hath the name of Christ upon him, and hath the name of the new jerusalem upon him, and hath the new name upon him; his name is the Christ of God, the anointed of God; the anointing that is upon you shall teach you all things; now then is that man past forms that goes to God, as Christ himself would go to the Father, if he were in distress▪ He goes in the same unction that was powered upon Christ Jesus: So he doth not formally make use of the name of Christ, as a man would use the name of some great man, and say; I beseech you Sir, that you would do this favour for me, for such a ones sake, but he goes to God, as a woman comes in her husband's name, right or interest, to a great King, her husband being a Favourite of that King; the woman doth not make use of another's name, but she makes known to the King what she is, and under what relation she stands; and so doth a Saint come in the same anointing of Jesus Christ to the Father; for God in raising up Christ, doth show to us that he will raise up all that are his, as he raised up the man Christ jesus; not raise them out of the grave of earth only, but out of the grave of Self, out of that same base being they had in Self, and corruption, unto that glorious being in God.  
4. And then another thing is this; At that day you shall ask in my name, and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you. Alas, while we are weak, we know not the Love of the Father to us, but think that Christ Jesus doth procure the Love of the Father, whereas Christ doth but manifest and declare the Love of the Father; and therefore saith Christ; I say not, that I will pray for you, for the Father himself loves you.  
Now having exhorted you to contend towards the knowing of the Father, and living in the Father, and not living in any form, (for all forms are to cease, forms are not our perfection: The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.) Let me give you this caution. Let no man think, there is no use of Christ, and no use of Preaching, or Ordinances of Prayer etc. No, this cannot be inferred from the Doctrine: This only may be inferred, that this is not that glorious rest where a Christian is to sit down; forms are but helps, but God doth by forms, bring us to know himself without a form; and no man knows the Father, but he that knows him by Christ whom he did send, therefore you cannot cast away those forms: The Scriptures will last so long as there is aught of them to be fulfilled. But that which we are contending toward, in all these means, is the knowing of the Father, and then we shall see that simplicity and unity that is in the truth; then we shall see all those knots loosed, and dark ways opened; then we shall see that all those things of Christ coming, and dying, and suffering for us, were but Parables.  
Now this is the sum of the Gospel, that God loves Believers, and is their Righteousness and their Strength: and Love, and Faith, and All, not thus resolved, is but a Parable that doth cloud the Father: They were not ordained to cloud the Father, but they do through our weakness cloud the Father from us: They were ordained, that they might insinuate and convey, according to our capacities, the knowledge of the Father into us, but as I said before, in all forms there is weakness; and forms shall be done away, as time hastens to be no more, and God be all in all.   

THE TRUTH as it is in JESUS.  JOHN. 17. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they might be sanctified through the Truth. 
THese words are an enforcement of that Petition which Christ put up for his Disciples, and for all Believers to the end of the world; that Petition you have in the 17. v. Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.  
The Reason by which Christ enforces this Petition, follows immediately. As thou hast sent me into the world, so have I sent them into the world. And therefore Father (saith he) sanctify them through thy truth, as if he should say; Behold, they are sent out into the world, as I was sent out into the world; they are sent out into a sinful world, into a lewd world; they are sent forth upon the same errand and design that I am sent into the world, viz. to show forth the virtues and praises of God; and therefore sanctify them (saith he) through thy Truth, thy word is Truth; And for their sakes I sanctify myself etc.  
Here is a further Enforcement of his Request: The meaning of it I shall give in a Paraphrase; It is as much as if Christ had said, behold my Sanctification is leveled at their Sanctification; their Sanctification is the end, and my Sanctification is but the means: It is for their sakes that I sanctify myself, that they may be sanctified: My own sanctifying of myself is not for my own sake, it is for their sakes; and therefore I lose my end in all that I do, I lose my end in dying and suffering, if they be not sanctified. That's the scope of the words in general. Now we come to open them particularly to you.  
1. What is meant by this same sanctifying, for their sakes I sanctify myself. Was Jesus Christ common or unclean, that he speaks here of being sanctified? Had Jesus Christ any sin in him that need to be removed, that he speaks here of being sanctified? No, there was no sin in him, neither was there any guile found in his mouth; and yet Jesus Christ is said to be sanctified, not only in this place, but in other places, as Heb. 2. He that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified are all one, saith the Apostle, when he speaks of Christ that did sanctify himself.  
Therefore, it is needful to show you what is that sanctifying of Christ that he meaneth here; what it was, and by what it was.  
First, it may be taken either particularly, for the sanctifying of himself by his Cross, by offering up himself: Thereby he did sanctify himself, by offering up himself; he was crucified in the flesh, that he might live unto God in the spirit: Christ did lay down the glory of the first Adam, in which he did appear absolute and complete before his sufferings, but he laid down that glory and that righteousness, he laid down that same body of his, that so he might be renewed again in the Glory of the Father.  
2. Or else secondly, this same Sanctification may be meant of the whole, as of the death of Jesus Christ. It may be meant of all that befell him from his Cradle to his Cross, of all that was done in him, or done by him, or done upon him: All this was the sanctifying of Christ; And it is called a making of him perfect. It became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, to make the Captain of our salvation perfect through sufferings.  
And so by temptation he was made perfect, as well as by his Cross; and so Sanctification here may be as much as Qualification; this did qualify Christ for the end for which he was designed and ordained, which end was to reveal the Grace of the Father, and the salvation of man, in and by that grace; and all that was done unto Christ, it was a sanctifying of him, or a completing of him, thus to be the Author and the finisher of our Faith; to be a complete type and pattern, and a complete Covenant and Witness unto us. Now having explained those words; for their sakes I sanctify myself.  
There is but one word more that needs to be explained, and that is, thy Truth; For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they might be sanctified through the Truth. What is meant by this word, thy Truth?  
This same word here thy Truth, is a relative word, and I conceive it may relate to this same Type, Pattern, Image or Representation. These two, you know, are members of a distinction, Image and Truth, Shadow & Truth. So by the Truth, in this place, you are to understand that which answers unto the shadow, Type or, Representation.  
And so you have the meaning of these words: Thus saith Christ; Therefore am I come into world, and have done and suffered these things before the eyes of men, to the end, that the like things may be done in the spirit, in all my members; whereof I have exhibited to the world, a map and description in my own body and person: For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they might be sanctified through the truth.  
So then, you may observe these things out of the words.  
1. That Sanctification is a large notion in Scripture; it's a large notion; for the meaning of our Saviour, speaking of his sanctifying himself; and of his members being sanctified, is not to defix the thoughts and apprehensions of the hearers, unto that same grace that we commonly call Sanctification, in distinction from justification; but Sanctification is that, in this place, that comprehends the whole Mystery of God in a Saint, which is called here by the name of Sanctification; even as it is said, By one offering hath he perfected, for ever, them that are sanctified. It were far from pure Divinity, to understand them that are sanctified, there to be meant of inherent Sanctification, only or properly, that is, of the Grace of the Spirit working in us holiness; but he hath perfected them that are sanctified, that is, them that are separated by the Father's Love, them that are called in time, them that are led by the Spirit, and so it may comprehend the whole Election and Vocation, and justification, and Sanctification, and all; and so we are said to be chosen, through Sanctification of the Spirit. But I shall not open these places any further.  
2. Next observe, here are two Sanctifications: here is a typical Sanctification, as I may so say, and here is a real Sanctification: Here is the Sanctification of Christ, and here is the Sanctification of his members: For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they might be sanctified.  
I should be too long if I should observe all the particulars that the words will afford, and insist upon them; therefore I shall pick out these two things only; and the first I shall speak of but briefly; and the second is that I do chief intent.  
The First is this;  
Doctr. That Jesus Christ's Sanctification, or those Transactions of Christ in the flesh, have not their ends in themselves, but they have their end and fulfilling in us.  
For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they might be sanctified through the Truth.  
That which is for another's sake, (mark it) or for the sake of another thing to be done, that is not to be rested in itself; but Jesus Christ's Sanctification, his dying, and his rising, it was for another things sake; and therefore it is not to be rested in, nor to be gloried in, in itself; For their sakes I sanctify myself.  
Jesus Christ is unto his seed, as the First Adam was unto his seed. He is a common Root, and our salvation is transacted in him, as in a Figure, As our destruction was wrought in Adam, as in a Figure. As destruction and death did seize upon us all, in a Figure, in Adam; so doth life and salvation await us all (all the elect) in Christ Jesus. It doth descend upon them all, as in a Figure; for so the Apostle doth parallel the First Adam and the Second Adam together, Rom. 5. where you may read it at large.  
Now, that I say these things were done in a Figure; I will give you my meaning of it thus, and the proof of it also.  
Adam lost all his by a Covenant, and so Christ restores all his by a Covenant; but we know that a Covenant, although it doth give me a title in Law, unto such or such an estate or commodity; yet this same Covenant is not the very possession itself. So this same Covenant, of which Jesus Christ is the Copy, as it were, and is the common person with whom it is made; This Covenant gives our Faith the First Hold, and First Title, but it is not the very possession itself: In possession the salvation itself is wrought, or rather revealed in us. As we do not inherit sin and death from the first Adam, merely by Covenant, in which we were involved; but we participate of the nature of Adam, and we so come to have an evil conscience; we have the very same Nature that Adam had, and the same trembling conscience that Adam had: so in this case, we have the very Death and Life of the Lord Jesus working in us.  
So that you see the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, are not to be gloried in in themselves, or as they rest in the man Christ Jesus; but we are to wait for the like things to be translated in us, and upon us; and that is the next thing I come unto: Doct. 2 For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they might be sanctified through the Truth.  
This is that the Apostle saith, Ephes. 4. 21. If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the Truth is in Jesus; That ye put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness. &c Where he shows, what the Truth is in jesus; even the putting off the old man, and the putting on the new man, which is created etc.  
This is the Truth; this is the work in the Spirit, done in every Believer, conform to that work wrought in Christ in the flesh. This is our sanctifying through the Truth; and so you have the Apostle holding forth the Saints suffering, from Christ's example; as the Ministration or Token of their salvation, 1 Pet. 2. 21. Even hereunto were ye called, because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example etc. Mark ye, jesus Christ is our example: Christ in the flesh, and what was done in him in a visible way in the flesh, that is wrought in us in an invisible way in the spirit; and 'tis said. 1 Pet. 4. 1. Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, let us arm ourselves with the same mind; for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin. Mark it here: The Apostle doth not say we have ceased from sin, by Christ's suffering in the flesh for us, but be doth admonish us here of a personal suffering, if we would cease from sin.  
What this same suffering in the flesh is, I shall tell you in a few words. It is to have our life in the flesh extinguished; that, as the Apostle saith, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: It is to know nothing by ourselves: This is to suffer in the flesh; as the Apostle says, I know nothing by myself; He did not act at all: to be dead unto the Law, and to be dead in our first relation unto God; this is the suffering in the flesh.  
We are first in the relation of Mercenaries, by the Covenant of Works, and have a kind of stock of our own to trade withal. Now to suffer in the flesh, is to cast awaythi same confidence of our own, to to despair of our abilities, and to see our selus able to do nothing. For while we are in the flesh, the motions of sin which are by the law, do work in our members to bring forthfruit unto death. 
Rom. 7.   
I will give you one more Scripture to prove this, and that is, Eph. 1. 17. where the Apostle prays thus for the Ephesians: That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; the eyes of your understandings being enlightened, that ye may see what is the hope of his calling. And at the 19 verse. That you may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power, which he wrought in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead. Pray mark it; The Apostle doth directly and expressly assert, that there is the working of the same mighty power in Believers, that wrought in Christ when God raised him from the dead. And the Apostle Rom. 8. saith in general: That as many as God did foreknow, he did predestinate to be conformed to the Image of his Son; That is, God did predestinate them to be carried on the same way that Christ was, and so the same things to be done in them, that were done in him.  
Object. There is only one Objection that I shall answer before I come to the Application of the point; and that is in Col. 2. 11. In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of sins of the flesh by the Circumcision of Christ,  
Here lies the Objection, if so be we are circumcised in Christ: If all Believers are circumcised in him at once; as this Scripture seems to hold forth, by the putting off of that same body of his, by that very circumcision of his▪ Why then, you will say, our Sanctification tarries not for the appearance of the like things in us.  
I confess this Objection lies plain in appearance against what hath been spoken.  
But I shall answer to you thus, and show you how we are circumcised in Christ by his circumcision; and how it is, that notwithstanding we are actually and personally circumcised by the circumcision of the Spirit, and by real circumcision.  
1. First, than we are circumcised in Christ federally, as in our root and common person; we are unto God circumcised in Christ, as in a Figure. Pray mark it, it is, I say, as in a Figure: for thus we are to look upon Jesus Christ; not as one that came to excuse the Old man from dying, or to set us up in a state of salvation without working any thing within us. Nay, he came to reveal the Kingdom of God within us, and to set it up within us; but he first gave us a pattern of the Kingdom, and first transacted all our salvation in a Figure, before he transacted it within us by the Spirit; and this transacting our salvation without us in a Figure. bears its use and proportion towards the effecting of the work of Sanctification within us by the Spirit. For thus God hath hereby caught us by guile, (as I may so speak) even as when we stood in Adam, Adam falling cast us all down. So now, God he comes and reveals a second Adam, and this same second Adam God sets up as our common root, representing us all; and this is that Covenant that God proclaims from heaven. Look what is the fat● of the second Adam, that shallbe the fate of all the seed; if he stand, all shall stand; if he fall, they shall all fall. Now jesus Christ comes & stands in our stead, and was made under the Law, and he dies and suffers, goes away in the flesh, suffers in the flesh, and is not overcome of death or Hell, or the pains of death, but rises again. Here's our salvation transacted in a Figure, and set before us: As it did far with Christ, so it shall far with us; we shall as certainly come to glory, as he did. Here is the Type, here is the Original Pattern, here is the forerunner, here is the draught or copy of the Covenant written in broad Characters upon the person of jesus Christ. This is the use of Christ's dying, and suffering, and sanctifying himself; and so we are said to be sanctified in him, as our root, representing us. What proportion this bears to the transacting of our salvation within us, is this. Hereby we are brought to God; hereby our weak hands are lifted up, and our feeble knees are strengthened: Hereby we are caught (as it were) with guile, and God doth hold forth our salvation, as in a Parable, to us: But if so be the work rest here (let us suppose an impossibility,) we are but in an ill condition, if we be not circumcised also together with Christ, really by the spirit, as well as circumcised in Christ federally and typically, and representatively; it will go but ill with us.  
We may see what is to be done by looking upon the History of Christ; but till we find the same things done in us in the mystery, in some measure, we can have little comfort: We may see the end of the Lord with us, even the same end he made with Christ Jesus; but we must follow his steps also, as the Apostle Peter saith; He hath left us an example, that we should follow his steps.  
1. Now the use I shall make of this, is to confirm that Doctrine I have formerly delivered to you; that Doctrine that needs confirming again, and that need be whetted upon us, because we are exceeeding dull of hearing spiritual truths; the Doctrine is this, namely:  
That the whole History of Christ will profit you nothing, nor all that you know, except you find experimentally the same things done in you by the Spirit.  
I desire to commend this Doctrine to you again and again; That the History of the Gospel is but a Parable (as it were,) that holds forth to us the story of things done, and not only so, but holds forth a glass of things to be done by the spirit within us.  
I beseech you therefore be not offended, when as we say, that Christ according to the History of him only, and according to his Ministration in the flesh, is but a form in which God doth appear to us, and in which God doth give us a Map of our salvation. Thou knowest it not to be thy real salvation, except it be revealed within thee in the Spirit. Jesus Christ is called the Image of the Invisible God: God comes forth to be seen in the flesh of Christ, as in an Image, as in a Representation; it is not the naked appearance of God, but it is an Image of God. Now we know the Image serves in the absence of the lively face of the living Person; and so do all these same transactions of Jesus Christ; they serve until the Kingdom of God be come to us in the Spirit. A Map serves until a man knows the Country, and so do these same Transactions of jesus Christ, they serve as constant Monuments unto us; Monuments, I say, and Pillars, and Memorials, and Types, of that same salvation that is to be wrought and revealed within us by the Spirit; and therefore as Christ saith, we may be bold to say after him; The flesh profits nothing: if you only know Christ, as dying and rising without you, it will profit you nothing, unless you know him as dying & rising within you. Error in this is the root of the dead faith, whereof the world is full.  
This is the root of that formal profession, of that form of godliness which men do advance so far in, and glory so much of, and shroud themselves under, unto the persecuting of the power of godliness, to the persecuting of the Spirit. This setting up of the History of Christ, being ignorant of the Mystery; Any man is capable of remembering the story of Christ, and telling and rehearsing it, if he hath but common reason, and can say, as well as another, that Christ died for him, and can throw himself upon Christ, and hang upon Christ.  
This is not Faith; this is not Salvation: We have not known how to put a difference between the precious and the vile; We know not how to shake off the pretenders, and knock off their fingers that would pretend to eternal life: Through the ignorance of this truth; we have counted it enough, if a man hath had the knowledge of the Story of Christ, and hath said, he casts himself upon Christ for salvation. But hearken what James saith; Faith without works is dead; Hearken what Paul saith, Rom. 8. 3. The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the Law of sin and death.  
He doth not say, that such a proposition of the Gospel did set him free: He doth not say, that the hearing, that Christ died for the sins of men, doth set him free. No, there was the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, as well as there was the Law or Letter, the outward Covenant; is it that entails life upon Jesus Christand his seed? There is an outward Covenant, and there is an inward Spirit. The outward Covenant is this; I will be thy God, and the God of thy seed: This is the Covenant that God made with Christ, that he made with Abraham of old; I will be thy God, and the God of thy seed. Now than they that are of the seed of Christ, are in this Covenant, as all that were Abraham's seed, were in that outward Covenant; but may not any man pretend to be of the seed of Christ, and to be of the generation of Christ? And do not thousands profess themselves so to be? Do not thousands in the world say, Lord, Lord, and press to enter into Heaven? We cannot put a difference between one or other, except we know this truth; for they say they are in the Covenant, & they say they are of Christ's seed; and what hold they forth for this? They hold forth the confession of Christ, and say, that he died for their sins, and risen for their Justification, and this they believe, and upon this they lay their souls for salvation. May not the veriest Hypocrite do so, as well as the truest Saint. But here is that which puts a difference, when the Spirit of Jesus Christ brings this Covenant to the heart of a poor creature, when the Spirit of Adoption, the Spirit of Sonship, revealing God as our Father, revealing God in Union with us, our Righteousness and our Strength, he doth indeed seal us to the day of Redemption; he sets apart Christ's sheep. This distinguishes them from the other: So that if you lay your salvation upon an historical Christ, you will be deceived. If you would have that in which you may confide, you must have Christ revealed in you in the Spirit; you must have the same spirit of Faith that was in Christ, and the same Spirit of Power that wrought in him; you must have the same eternal Spirit, by which you must offer up your bodies, offer up your flesh to God as a Sacrifice, yea, yourselves, and your own Righteousness: This is true salvation; Here is salvation manifested unto life. But you will say to me; Is not this a wronging of Jesus Christ? Is it not a giving away from Christ? And a giving it to grace and Sanctification within us?  
Solu. To this I answer, that it is no giving away from Christ, at all; for we make Christ to be all in all in this; only we distinguish of Christ▪ There is Christ in the Flesh; and Christ in the Spirit; Christ in the Flesh is the witness, the Covenant, the common Person, in whom our salvation is transacted, as in a figure: Christ in the Spirit, is the real Truth and Principle of Righteousness and of Life; he is the real salvation within us: For what is Christ Jesus in the Spirit, but the Manifestation of God, the coming forth of God; and unto this must we attribute, and in this we must fix and pitch our salvation; this is the Savour of life unto life, Of his own will begat he us. Doth not the Apostle there take away from Christ? And yet elsewhere Christ is said to be the everlasting Father. This same Will of God brought forth, is nothing else but Christ Jesus in Spirit; Christ jesus is the outgoing of the Father's Will, the Manifestation of the Father's good Pleasure. Therefore he is said to dwell in the heart of every Believer. If you confine Christ's dwelling to a local Heaven, you are ignorant of that which is the greatest joy that can be; Christ dwells in thy heart; if the Will of God be revealed in thee by the Spirit, Christ is in thee, for he is nothing else but the outgoing of the Father's Will, and the Manifestation of the Father's good pleasure; this is Christ. So that if we give to Sanctification, we give to Christ; For this is the Will of God, even our Sanctification; Christ is made unto us Righteousness and Sanctification.  
But I desire a little further to examine that same, before I let it pass; it is said, it is a giving to Sanctification, and not to the blood of Christ; I say no.  
For 1. I do not here take Sanctification, as it is commonly taken, as to be such and such particular acts of the Spirit: I know that our life lies not in this or the other act, or in any particular act. Our life lies in union with God through the Spirit.  
2. I give it not only to the Sanctification of the Spirit, but to the Revelation of the Spirit. There is the Revelation of the Spirit, as well as the Sanctification of the Spirit, as the Apostle speaks, Ephes. 1. 17. That God would give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and Revelation etc.  
3. There is the Spirit of grace, as well as the grace of the Spirit, and to this I give all, and the Spirit of grace is Christ Jesus; and so to him I give all: and what do I give to the Spirit? I give the Manifestation of salvation to life, and that's all.  
4. This is the sum of all I desire to commend unto you: That we are not justified, we are not sanctified, by Christ's dving, by Christ's suffering in the flesh only; that is not the complete Ministration of our salvation: (There indeed we see our salvation as in a glass, and it is transacted as in a figure, as in the history,) but then are we actually sanctified; when as God doth send that same Spirit of Adoption into our hearts, revealing unto us the Love of the Father, and revealing unto us our Reconciliation; that Reconciliation that was held forth to us on the Cross, but which is dispensed unto us, by our being offered up upon the Cross as Christ was. For the Apostle Rom. 8. doth in two places speak so expressly to this purpose, that no man can wave it, or put it by. verse 10. If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, and the spirit is life, because of righteousness. Here is the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ: If Christ be in you, (and there is no salvation without it,) then the body is dead; the body of your own Righteousness, and your own Strength, and wisdom is crucified in conformity to the death of Christ; Christ's death was but the figure of the death that must pass upon the flesh of every Believer; and therefore though we may say, I am crucified with Christ etc. We cannot take any comfort till the body be dead in us. And the other place is the 4. verse of Rom. 8. That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, etc. Pray mark it: You dream of a Righteousness of the Law fulfilled for you: that is true too; Christ fulfilled it for you perfectly; but there is a fulfilling of the Righteousness of the Law in you. And the Apostle shows what that is, when you are crucified to the fleshly principle, and walk in the spiritual principle; though you walk not in perfect obedience, yet spiritually it is done in you: The Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.  
So then look after this, that you be sanctified through the Truth, that is, that you, in very deed, be sanctified according to the pattern of Sanctification in Christ Jesus. Let me mind you again of that Scripture, Ephes. 4. 21. If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the Truth is in Jesus, that ye put off the old man, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, etc. Look that this be done.  
Object. But you will say unto me; is not this to bring us again into Bondage? To charge this upon us, when as we are bid look, that it should be so and so with us.  
Solution I answer, it is your great interest that these things should be done in you, but it is not expected that they should be done by you: According to the working (saith the Apostle) of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead, and set him etc. It is Gods mighty power that works in you; it is God that crucifies you; it is God that quickens you. Christ offered up himself by the eternal Spirit; it was not by the resolution of his flesh, that he gave himself to die, as many a Valiant Roman hath done for his Country; but it was through the eternal Spirit; and therefore, that which you are to do, is to wait upon God.  
And herein comes the use of the doing of these things in the man Christ Jesus before your eyes: It is to strengthen your faith and expectation of having these things done in you, by the same power and spirit. And therefore if you ask me what use you should make of Christ's Death and Resurrection, and these things: I say, look upon them as the earnest of your salvation; look upon them as the very sealing of the Covenant between God and you. God reads over (as it were) all the Covenant before us, and seals it in our presence; and this is the scope of the Manifestation of Jesus Christ: It is but to manifest the life to us, to show what God will do upon your flesh: So what God did to Christ Jesus, and so how he carried him to glory, so how he was tempted, and be not you discouraged, though it be so with you. See how the Disciples were dismayed, when Christ wrapped up himself, for a Moment, in the grave, as in a cloud of darkness; They said, we thought this bad been he that should have redeemed Israel.  
See what an end the Lord made with him, the same end will the Lord make with you also.   

THE TRUTH as it is in JESUS.  JOHN. 17. Sanctify them through thy Truth, thy word is Truth. Verse, 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they might be sanctified through the Truth. 
THis same Portion of Scripture that is read to you, is an Enforcement, or part of an Enforcement of one of those savoury Petitions, which Jesus Christ put up at his departure out of this world for his Disciples, and in them, for all his elect: The Petition is this; Sanctify them through thy Truth.  
This Petition he doth in part explain, and he doth enforce and urge it with Arguments.  
1. He explains it in part, that part, thy Truth, he explains it thus, thy word is Truth.  
Now before I go any further: By the word here we are not to understand this same Letter, (for we know this same Letter of the word, is taken up by every one to defend his opinion, and therefore this is not the meaning of thy word is Truth:) But the meaning is this; That that word that was with God, and that was God; that word is Truth.  
I conceive this same truth being a relative notion, is here to be taken in opposition to form▪ Thy word is Truth: The meaning is this; That thy word, it is not only a form and an appearance in which thou dost make out thyself unto the world, but thy word indeed is the very Truth, (that is) it is thyself, and so Christ desires that his Disciples may be sanctified, not by planting the knowledge of the literal word in their minds; but by engraffing the nature of the Divine word in their hearts, that is, by engraffing God himself, by God himself becoming one with them. This is the only means of Sanctification; This is the true Sanctification by the word; The ingraffed word which is able to save our souls.  
Now having explained his request, he enforces it, and the first Enforcement of it is this, from the title, and the reason that may be pleaded, why they should be sanctified, why the Members of Christ should be sanctified: Why saith he: There is as much reason why they should be sanctified, as there is why I should be sanctified: For as thouhast sent me into the world, so have I sent them into the world. Mark it I pray, and you will see that it is not such a wring of the nose that will cause blood; when we make a necessity of the same things to be wrought in us▪ as were wrought in Christ jesus. For as God hath sent Christ into the world, so did Christ send these his Disciples into the world, that is, as God did send Christ into the world to make known himself, so Christ jesus, when he hath fulfilled his Ministration in the flesh, he sends out Believers; I say, he sends out Believers upon the same design to make out God and his glory to the world. So that then this is a sure and satisfying ground, why the same glory of the Father must work in Believers, that wrought in Christ, because that Believers are sent out upon the same errand and design that Christ was sent about; As thou hast sent me into the world, so have I sent these into etc. Believers hold forth God in a spiritual discovery to the world, that is, they hold forth that glory of the Father's working, and discovering itself in them in a spiritual way, which Christ held forth in a fleshly way: My meaning is; Believers are not lift up upon a material Cross, as Christ was, and do not suffer without the gate, as Christ did; but their Old man is crucified spiritually, and they are raised and quickond by a lively hope spiritually.  
This is the Reason that Christ saith; As thou hast sent me into the world, so have I sent them into the world; Therefore, sanctify them with thy Truth, thy word is Truth: And for their sakes (saith he) I sanctify myself. This is (as it were) the making up of the Reason, and the meaning of it is this; saith Christ, Herein doth thy design come to its period and perfection, even in the Sanctification of my Members. Herein thy design (Oh Father) is come to the birth, and is brought forth; for while this design works only in my person, it is not at its term and period, till it come to work in their persons; for I am but (as it were) an intermediate form and person, in whom thou dost discover thyself for the present, with relation to the like discovery in them, through the spirit, afterwards; And therefore (saith he) For their sakes I sanctify myself, that etc. As who should say; If it were not in relation to them, there should be no such thing as my dying, and suffering, and rising again; It is but in relation to their Sanctification, that the same glory may work in them in the Spirit, conformable to this pattern of mine in the flesh. And thus you have the meaning of the words; For their sakes I sanctify myself, etc.  
That which I shall insist upon at this time, is the last word of the Text, Through thy Truth: So that the Observation that I would ground thereupon, is this.  
Doctr. That that Glory of the Father, which works in the body of Christ, the Saints, is the Truth of that same Image that did appear in the head of that body, Christ Jesus.  
It is called an Image, in 2 Cor. 3. ult. we all, as in a glass, behold the Glory of the Lord; (there it is equivalently called an Image; for your face in a glass, is but an Image of your face;) but it follows more expressly: And are changed into the same Image from glory to glory.  
But still I desire you to carry that along, that a Believers crucifying is not a fleshly crucifying, as Christ's was, but his Old man is crucified by spiritually discoveries. This is the Truth, and the other is but the form.  
Now I must explain myself here: You will ask me, whether that same work of God, that is wrought in the hearts of Believers, be their eternal life, their happiness and salvation? Whether that be their Righteousness; for there is a great prejudice against Doctrines of this kind; as if we did take away from Christ, and give to that work of God within us, that honour that is due to Jesus Christ.  
Answ. Now I conceive that neither the Actions of God in Christ, (I mean of Christ dying and rising) nor the like Actions of the Spirit in us, conforming us unto Christ, are our salvation, or eternal life, but the making out of eternal life; they are only the Manifestation of that grace that was given us before the world began. If you ask me then what is our happiness and our life; I conceive that God alone is our happiness, God in union with us. Mark it; not only God loving us, for love is but an expression to us. Love is a sweet thing among the creatures, and we know what love is from one to another; but the Love of God to us, is but the making out of a kind of spiritual Union that is between God and a Believer; So that to say, that the Love of God placed upon us is our happiness, is too weak, and too low an expression: but this is our happiness that we are in God, and in Jesus Christ; and that the Father and the Son is in us, and is our Righteousness and our Strength in Union with us; This is our happiness and eternal Life.  
Now I say, all the Dispensations of God are but to make out these things unto us.  
Give me leave to illustrate it to you, by going a little about. This was our Lot and Portion, from the beginning; God was our Portion, and God did maintain our Lot, as Psa. 16. And God was become in Union with the creature: This was in the beginning of the Creation, and this was in the Person of Christ jesus, as an Earnest of the whole; but this same Union, and this great happiness, that the creature might be sensible of it, and that it might come home with the greater advantage, (as it were) and we might have the more lively taste of it; therefore did God ordain all those intervening administrations: therefore he makes the first Adam as a figure of Christ, and therefore he bestows but a little grace on Adam, or makes him mutable that he might fall, that the Love of the Father might be the more manifested to us, which we could never have seen, nor admired so much, if we had not been thus led about unto it. And this is the end of Christ in the Flesh, and Christ in the Spirit; and so I shall come to show you the difference between Christ in the Flesh, and Christ in the Saints; for if we give glory to any other then unto Christ, we shoot beside the mark; we give it to Christ still; but there is Christ in the Flesh, and Christ in the Spirit; both these agree to make out the Father; and here is the difference of that work of God within us, from that work of God in Christ. This latter is the Truth of the former; Sanctify them through thy Truth, that is, do thou act those things really in them, which are done in a figure for them upon me: There is the Truth. I desire to clear up this to you by some familiar experience.  
You know that Jesus Christ is said to die for our sins, and rise again for our Justification. Here is now Christ in the Flesh; here is his Ministration. Why now, hereupon salvation is preached unto men, and it is told, that God is reconciled, for he hath sent his Son. There is nothing to be done; Justice is fulfilled; God is reconciled; he would not else have slain his Fatlings, and made a feast for us. Therefore believe: Here is the outward dispensation; but now a poor soul, notwithstanding all this, lies under the guilt and weight of sin; and such a grievious sin comes to his mind, and not only one, but multitudes of sins lie upon him; whereby he cannot believe or take comfort in these glad tidings. Do ye not see that there is need of another Ministration? Is there not need of the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, as well as a Proposition of the Gospel? You come and show a poor soul the Proposition of the Gospel; That whosoever believeth in Christ Jesus shall have eternal life etc. And God so loveth the World, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should have eternal life. Yet all this while the poor soul lies dead, till not only the Letter, but the Spirit of the Gospel comes and appears to him: Till Christ appears, not only in the first Court, that is his own flesh, or the Letter of the Gospel; but in the inmost place of all, that is, in this man's conscience; for we may allude to that place, Heb. 9 24. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.  
Pray mark it; Jesus Christ did not suffer in Heaven, but without the gate; he suffered in the world, but he is entered into Heaven. These words are spoken figuratively; its true, he went up visibly, to his Disciples, into Heaven, (that is) a place remote from their sight, a Cloud received him out of their sight. The true Heaven (and that Heaven where Christ doth appear to the comfort and relief of a poor soul) is the conscience of a poor sinner, and that is called Heaven, because as Heaven is the place of God, so is the heart of man; the heart of man is the place of God. He is said to be the searcher of the heart; he sits there, and wounds, and heals there; there is God's true place. It is not in the understanding of a man, in the notions there, but it is in the heart of a man, thither it is that Jesus Christ is gone. Christ in the Spirit is in the hearts of his people, that is Christ's place, for that is the Father's place, for he is in the Father, and he goes to the Father; as it is said, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father.  
Now you know that the Father, though he be without us, he is within us; he can neither be said to be without us or within us, inclusively nor exclusively, for he fills all things, and is comprehended in nothing. So Jesus Christ is within us; the Father is in the hearts of men, and so is Christ, and that is the Heaven where he appears now; for do but consider this, that which follows in the 25. verse. Pray mark it. Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin. That which is rendered, the end of the world, may be translated, the end of the age, or the end of that Administration. That which I note from thence, is this; that Christ's sufferings put an end to one world, that world was at an end when Christ had suffered, that is, God had dispatched the outward discoveries of salvation, and now he would discover it within us; now all that was to be done by him, was within us. He went into the holy place, he went into Heaven, now to appear in the presence of God for us; and there it is that Jesus Christ speaks a word for a poor soul: There it is that Jesus Christ sits, as King, in our conscience. Christ may offer himself long enough in the Letter, in the History of the Gospel; but if he appear nor in the Spirit, and sit in our consciences to quiet them, we shall never have any true understanding of the word aright. Christ sets us free by making us Sons, and the Son abideth in the house for ever. Pray mark it; unless we be made Sons, we cannot abide in the house for ever; we do not abide in the house for ever, by having an eternal title by Christ, but by a real Sonship within us: That same which makes Christ a Son makes us Sons; and so you have it cleared unto you by that instance, that this is the truth; and the other, in comparison of this, is but the form, but the Representation or Image, but the Emblem of this Truth; and so what is it unto us in matter of Sanctification, to say, Christ hath taken hold of our nature, and purified it, and separated it, and sanctified it: what is this to the sanctifying of us, if our persons be not taken into that same Union, and be not sanctified with the same Spirit that Christ is.  
Reason. Now for this Reason, I shall desire you to look within yourselves; and I make no question, but if you do wait upon God without prejudiced spirits, he will clear this Truth to you.  
If so be it might be no offence, I should give you my own experience for the confirmation of this point, (for we can speak nothing, but what we have heard, and what we have seen:) Now I must confess, and profess unto you, that God hath made real this Truth unto me, not by study, not by notion, not by outward discovery, but by an inward experiment: For this I have found, and I trust more have found it besides myself, (though it may be they cannot tell what to call those things that work within them, nor how to express it, (it may be) but this I have found, that all outward administration hath been weak, and unable to produce those fruits and effects which the Scripture makes mention of: it hath been as the Law; What the Law could not do, in that it was weak etc. And look into yourselves, whether you have not found it so in yourselves, that you have had some corruption that hath troubled you: Some masterful lust you would be glad to get the victory over, and ye would account him a Messenger, one among a thousand, that could show you how to effect your desires  
I am sure, it hath been so with me; and when I have seen such words as these in the Scripture; Sin shall not have Dominion over you, for ye are not under the Law but under Grace.  
I have considered with myself, and have done as I have been directed to do, and I have told myself thou art under grace, and I have pleaded this to God, Lord I am under grace, I am under the Gospel, and why should sin have dominion over me: and thereupon I have studied the promises, because 'tis said; There are given to us exceeding great and precious promises, that by them, we might be made partakers of the divine nature.  
I have looked upon Jesus Christ dying for me, because the Scripture saith, The Love of Christ constrains us, etc. When all this while I have been like Siseras' Mother, wondering in myself, why do his Chariot Wheels stay, & c? Why am I not set free from my lusts? Is the Gospel a broken Reed? Doth it tell us things that we must make up by imagination, rather than feel the real operation, and experiment of them within us?  
The last Scripture I was much exercised in, in relation to these things, was this, in the Epistle of John; He that abideth in him sinneth not.  
Hereupon I inquire what this is, to abide in Christ, and sought to make it out to myself by my own Reason, and to find it out by the Letter of the Scripture, and all the account I could give of it, did relate to the creatures action: I thought we must be still commanding ourselves, and putting ourselves on to abide in Christ; and we must call upon one another to abide in Christ. And thus was I exercised in a continual toil and perplexity, and never could see my desires all this while, I could not find my corruptions slain by all these means, till God was pleased to hold forth this discovery to me, which I do now desire to hold forth to you, viz. that it is not the flesh of these things, it is not the historical knowledge of these things, it is not the saying you are under grace; it is not being under the form of the Gospel that can change your hearts, set you free from sin; but it is the Spirit, that, when he comes, doth chase away all Clouds, as the Sun on the earth. It is Christ in the Spirit, who is the truth within you, represented by that History without you; and yet all these things are the making out of God to you; they are not your happiness, or your life; for our happiness lies not in any action, be it in the greatest action; not in the mortification of sin, nor in vivification, but our life lies in Union, that hidden principle within us, that is God. And if ever you would have this Union, and that which is your hope made out to you, and would have the enjoyment of it in this life, you must wait upon that Jesus that came down from the Father's Bosom, and lived in the flesh; you must wait upon him, to come and live in your spirits, not only to bring you forth in the participation of his nature, but to fill you with the fullness of God, for so we have warrant to expect, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now this the Lord show you to be a Truth: There is a twofold Truth; there is a mediate Truth, and an ultimate Truth; there is a Truth manifesting, and a Truth manifested: Now the Truth manifested, is Union; That they all may be one, as we are one.  
This is the Truth that God would manifest to us by these things; by coming to us in the flesh of Christ, and in the Spirit.  
Now the Truth manifesting, is the Appearance of Christ in the Spirit, suitable and conformable to that outward Appearance of Christ in the flesh, without us, for our sakes: And you will never have the Love of God, and your Union with God, manifested to you, unless it be manifested to you by the Spirit, and except God work the same works in you, that he wrought in Christ. And thus I have discharged myself of this same Testimony.  
There are but two or three things that I shall speak by way of Use; and the first is this.  
Consider that which our Saviour speaks, John 16. 5. saith he there; It is expedient for you that I should go away; and pray mark it here. These times from Christ's departure, are the times of the Spirit.  
And pray mark that in the first place; the Spirit is the power of the fleshly administration; he is the power within us, of that fleshly, or administration without us. The Spirit is often called power, in the Demonstration of the Spirit and Power.  
●. Observe this, that there is but one Administration upon the world at a time; there is but one Administration upon a Person at a time: So that, if you be under that Administration of the Spirit, you are passed from under the fleshly Administration. This is clear from hence, that Christ saith; It is expedient for you that I go away, for except I go away, the Comforter will not come. A seed of corn doth not grow up in the ear or the blade, except it die in its own first form; and so it is here,  
That which I would infer from hence, is this; That you must go quite through the fleshly Administration, before you can come under the spiritual Administration. You must see the Original of the Administration, and the end of it, that is the Father; the Father sent the Son, and he sent the Son to reveal the Father: And it is not in the Death of Christ you are to see it, it is not in the Resurrection of Christ you are to see it. He brings you to the sight of this, by the power of these things working within you.  
And to confirm this to you, I desire you to consider; That when as the Scripture speaks of Christ, and when Christ himself speaks to the Father, you shall find that the Dialect is exceeding different: When Christ speaks to the Father, look into the 17 of John, 11. And now, saith he; I am no more in the world, but they are in the world; keep through thine own name, those whom thou hast given me.  
When the Scripture speaks of Christ to men, it saith; That God hath given him power over all flesh, that he should give life to whomsoever he will.  
And so the Scripture exalts Christ; but when Christ speaks to the Father, he doth quite divest himself, and saith, Father I have kept them through thy name, I have manifested thy name unto them. verse 6. Mark ye, Christ had made this discovery to them, that all the power he had, was of the Father: And now, saith he, Father, I come to thee, keep them through thy name. It was before, by God's name, that Christ kept them, but now it breaks forth more clearly, that it was through the Father's name; and so I conceive that this is a kind of resignation of the Kingdom to the Father. 
☞  It is true, the Administration was to go over and over again, that is, Believers are first trained up under a legal Administration, and trained up under an Administration of Christ in the flesh, before they come to the Administration of Christ in the Spirit; but as Christ himself, when he is going out of the world, saith; I have done all that I came to do: So after a time, Christ leads us from a knowing of him after the flesh, as representing things to us to know him within us, as a quickening Spirit. Consider how 
☞  much it concerns you, not to shut your eyes against this, but examine it, and try it, because the truth is, you will make slow advance till you are passed through the fleshly Administration, and are under the Spirit. Look into the 28. Isa. 9 Whom shall he teach knowledge, and whom shall he make to understand Doctrine, them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.  
Pray mark it, There is a question, and there is an answer; Whom shall I teach knowledge, and whom shall he make to understand doctrine, there's the question; The answer is, them that are weaned from the milk, etc.  
This same milk, and these same breasts are the foolishness of God, whereby he had made out himself to us according to our infirmity; they are the fleshly Appearance and Discoveries of God; these are the breasts, and this is the milk: and till we have proceeded further, we are in the flesh: And as you will count it a shame for an old man to lie sucking at the dug, so you are in an uncomely posture to be always sucking the breast, and always under rudiments, and to know no more of God than he holds forth in an Image without you. This is not your interest to rest here; and therefore I beseech you to wait upon God, for the humble he will teach in his way. And although I have met with some objections against this, and more may be raised from the Scripture that may seem to make against this, yet they are made clear to me; therefore wait upon God to clear them up to you. If be this taken from me, I profess I know no hope that I have of my calling; for what is our hope, but the hope of the high calling? God calls us to fellowship with himself, and hath manifested this by his Son. Weigh these things in the Balance, and consider that Christ comes in Clouds, and not in clear Discoveries at the first; the Lord give you understanding in all things.   

THE Dying and the living CHRISTIAN.  ROM. 14. 8. For whether we live we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. 
HERE is the Unity of Believers in their principle, and the Destruction of Believers in their Forms. All Christians, in what form soever, whether they be bond or free, it is to the Lord, there's their Unity; but there are bond, and there are free; there are Jews; those that are under the Law▪ there are those that are without Law; there are such as do live to the Law, and such as do die to the Law; there is their Destruction.  
I have already observed this point unto you.  
Doctr. That God is in all forms, not only in distinct forms, but in opposite forms: Whether we live we live unto the Lord, or whether we die, we die unto the Lord. He that regardeth a day, and he that regardeth not a day, the Lord is in the light, a●● in the principles of the one as well as of the other. The Lord is guide and leader of him that observes a day, and of him that observes not a day. This seems to be a contradiction, a Paradox; God is but one, the Truth is but one; 'tis true, but there are several steps and degrees of this Truth: We shall never come to be all one, and the Name of the Lord will never be one among us, until God is come forth in his most spiritual appearance, and until he hath brought us all to acknowledge that appearance, but in order to Gods making out himself in his spiritual appearance, in his naked discovery, and with an open face, he doth manifest himself in forms, and under vails; and he doth put off one form after another; put off a more gross, and put on a more fine; put off a more thick, and put on a more thin, and spiritual, and subtle vail. God is in all forms, but comprehended of no form; if he were comprehended in any, than he would not be in a diversity of forms; There's the great mistake of Christians; and this same dark principle, is that which makes us so to clash one against another: We know not the mind nor the manner of the Lord; we think if he be in our form, he can be in no other form: God is in a variety of forms and appearances, that so, no flesh may glory in his presence.  
God will not be tied to one form always, for than that would be looked upon as more than a form.  
I have already gone through three things in the handling of this point, which for the help of your memories, I will only name to you; the expounding of it, the bounding of it, and the grounding of it.  
For the bounding of it, tha● is the only thing I shall now remember you of. Is God in all forms? Then every superstitious wretch will take sanctuary here. I answer thus far; That whatsoever form any man doth conscientiously take up, that is a form of Scripture-cognizance, and doth walk in it to the Lord, being persuaded it is the Lords mind. He hath acceptance with the Lord: For this is the bound the Holy Ghost sets in the Text; He that regards a day regards it to the Lord. Is a man sincere in what he doth? Doth he it to the Lord? Doth he take it up because he thinks it is the Lords mind? And doth he serve the Lord and not any lust? Not a lust of honour, and the applause of men? Or the profit and commodity of this world? Or the preferment of the time? Why, if he doth it to the Lord, who art thou that judgest him? The Scriptures hold forth unto us several forms (as God hath put on several forms in his appearance to his people, and the Scriptures are the records of all these) and direct us unto them, Now, whosoever in the sincerity of his heart, takes up any of these, and walks in them as unto the Lord, he is accepted of him.  
Now the Use I made of this shall not be repeated; but there is one Use more behind. I exhorted you the last time, that you should hold it forth, that you do observe all your forms unto the Lord, and every one bring forth his proper fruit; whether you be in forms, or whether you be above forms: Thus the holy and happy man is described in the first Psalm; He brings forth his (own) fruit in his season. Look what season and administration you are under, see you bring forth your proper fruit: Those that are in forms, see that your forms be advantage ground to rise up to the Spirit; Those that be above forms, let them bring down the glory of God, and the Spirit, upon all forms wherein they converse with men; and as God hath brought them forth in the Spirit, so let them bring forth every action and form wherein they walk in the Spirit.  
Use. But the main Use which I intended, and that for which I did in a main part pitch upon these words, is, to reconcile Believers in their different walkings and administrations: Indeed it is sad, that there should be any falling out, that there should be any difference, as Reconciliation doth import; Let there be no strife among you, for you are brethren. Let us not judge one another, as the Apostle saith here, Let not him that eateth, despise him that eateth not. If so be that Christians do not judge themselves in their forms, why should we jud● them? And if so be that we do not judge one another, why should we think that we are judged one of another; for there's the quarrel many times. Such a man cannot walk in a different form from me, but I think presently he condemns me, and accounts me fleshly and carnal: It is a sign that thou judgest thy brother in his form, that dost think that he judgeth thee in thy form; For such as we are ourselves, such we judge others to be; Let us not judge one another, for God hath received him that eateth, and God hath received him that eateth not. Where is the unity of the Spirit, that the Apostle speaks of, Ephes. 4. Is there no unity, but where there is uniformity? Because we have not still one form, have we not therefore one Father, one Lord, one Baptism, or one common condition of suffering? Doth not the world hate you, if you be Saints? And doth it not hate them also that walk in another form, if they be Saints? Let us not judge one another; the strangeness that is among Christians, because of forms, is sad to behold; How we are loosened one from another, and how we are lost one to another; if we once strike out of that path wherein we have walked one with another; Is not this a denying, a crucifying of the Lord of glory? Is not this a disowning of Christ in one another? Is not this a knowing one another after the flesh? If you do good to them that do good to you, what reward have you? Do not even the Publicans the same? So if you love them that are in the same form with you, what thank is it? Every man loves him that will say as he says, and that will build up that which he builds up. The Apostle saith, That he that offends against a weak brother, sins against Christ: And is it not so; He that judgeth his brother, doth he not judge the Lord in his brother? He that judgeth his brother by a form, that overlooks the appearance of the Lord in his brother, and sees his deficiency in such a form; why doth he not now subject the Spirit (as it were,) and subject the divine excellency of Christians and Saints, to fleshly evidences and trials? It must make out itself in this fleshly form and appearance, or else there is nothing of God, nothing of the Spirit!  
The Reason why we agree not in several forms, is not because the forms differ, but the fault is in our hearts. God gathers up all forms, and embraces them in love, and it is because we look not upon our brethren in their several forms, in the Spirit of God, and of Christ, that we do not embrace them too. The Devil carches away the spiritual Image and Appearance that is under every form, wherein all forms agree, and he fixes our eye upon the very outward form wherein the difference consists; and so nourishes strife and discord among brethren.  
That which the Apostle said of the Law, the end is glorious; the end of Moses Administration was glorious: I may assume here, the true face, the true Image, and the true and spiritual Appearance in and under every form is glorious, and it is God, and it is one and the same, but the outward figure doth differ. He that hath the Spirit of God, and in that Spirit looks upon all forms, he embraces them all, he reconciles all, he walks with all, with Jew, with men under the Law, with men without Law; and doth not stumble, nor is an offence.  
All Saints are one body. Now as in the body there are several members, and each member differs as in a figure; so in usefulness too, yet are all useful in their places: So it is in the several attainments and administrations that Saints are under; each doth differ from other in spirituality, and power, and glory. The Scriptures are a Record and Register of all those several administrations that God hath brought his people under; of all the several forms in which God hath appeared to them; and the Scripture bears witness to every of these, and there is none of these but were useful in their time, in their order and place, and the one doth lead unto the other in a way of ascending still; and as the hand cannot say unto the foot, I have no need of thee; so neither can the highest administration say to the lowest administration. I have no need of thee; for there are still those that are benefitted by the lowest administration, as well as there are some that are raised up to the highest administration. The Nurse in a family (where there are children) is useful in her place, as well as the Steward of the house, that looks to all the estate. Milk is useful to babes, as well as strong meat to men: Therefore, as the members of the body do all of them do their office in their several places, without disputing and murmuring: (The hand saith not, because I am not the head, therefore I am not of the body; nor the foot, because I am not the eye to see the way, therefore I will not carry on the body in the way;) So should it be in the Body of Christ. Let us every one in that station and calling wherein we are set in the body, minister to the Lord; whether as Nurses to give to the children, or whether as Stewards to provide meat for strong men: If we had a right understanding of things, there would not be these breaches among us, because we walk not all in the same way, are not all in the same form. It is the beauty of the body to have variety of parts; The manifold wisdom of God is seen in it, his word is purified seven times, and he brings forth the same truths in more spiritual and higher appearances, and higher, and higher yet; the same Lord is fulfilled over and over. They that are yet in the low bough's, may come to the top bough; But here's the Resolution of all; Those that are yet below, being not able to comprehend that which is above them, and that which is more capacious than themselves, they cannot bear witness to it, nay, they cannot bear with it. But still take this for a certain truth, the higher you go, and the more God draws you up, the more able you will be to comprehend and reconcile all underappearances, and all lower administrations, and to discern them all in the Unity of the Spirit, and of the appearance and breaking forth of God. But so much shall serve for that Use and that Point.  
Now I come to the next Point, and that's the difference between men in their forms, or rather the amount; of their difference, what it amounts to. We have it in these words, Whether we live, or whether we die.  
Who is he that dies? It is he that is in bondage to outward observances, that depends upon fleshly forms.  
Who is he that lives? Why, it is he that is free. You know, ye often meet with these distinctions in Scripture, Circumcision and uncircumcision, Jew and Gentile, bond and free, quick and dead.  
Liberty is the next thing to life, What good doth a man's life do him, if he be not a free man? (I mean spiritual Liberty or Liberty in the Spirit;) and Bondage it is next to death. But upon other Considerations, is it here called living and dying.  
But it may be said, is not the Text abused to interpret it thus allegorically, or to make a Metaphor of it, should it not be taken literally?  
Whether we live, (that is in the body) we live to the Lord, or whether we die (that is, go out of this body) we die to the Lord?  
I answer, besides, that such an interpretation is to make the Apostle here speak impertinently, as being quite from the business he hath in hand. You shall find also it is cross to the Letter of the Scripture; for that is not death that men call death, and that is not life that men call life; For God is the God of the living and not of the dead; in that sense, Abraham is alive, though dead. The Scripture calls not them dead, nor God the God of the dead, in that sense, but the living, and all things live to God.  
Again, he saith not, they die in the Lord, though that be to be taken spiritually, but they die to the Lord. And if you ask, why should they be called dying Christians, dying Saints? The Apostle will tell you, when he saith, To be carnally minded is death,. Rom. 8. 6. That which is translated carnally minded, signifies to savour carnally; to savour God and our life carnally, this is death; but he that is in bondage to forms, savours God and life carnally, ergo it is death, and he is a dying man. That he savours carnally, appears from hence; That he doth relish better, and savour more the weakness of God in an Ordinance, than the strength, and excellency, and glory of God in the Spirit, and in his own proper appearance. He is more taken; his heart goes out more after a sight of God in flesh, then to see him in Spirit; is not this to savour life carnally? For to think that a man's life is bound up in any form, or in flesh, is it not a carnal savour? And yet do not many Christians do so? Do not they think that God and an Ordinance do nourish and feed, and administer strength to you, but not God without an Ordinance. The Apostle saith, We have this treasure in earthen vessels. Now if a man counts not this to be treasure except it be in an earthen vessel, is not this carnal? It is true, while we do receive God in any form it is mercy, but to say, God cannot be meat or nourishment without a form, this is to savour our life carnally. How many Christians are troubled and assaulted with doubts, concerning their good estate, that have a load lying upon them, and Clouds of darkness before them; that hanker after an Ordinance to come & dispel these Clouds! O if I could receive such an Ordinance, a Sacrament in such a manner; This would solve all objections, and give them full assurance: when as they have God, they have his Promises; The word is nigh thee, saith the Apostle in this Epistle, Chap. 10. even in thy heart. But behold, except this God will come to them in flesh, they can make no use of him; they cannot see how God should do it in Spirit without a form; this is to savour life carnally, therefore they linger in their desertions and temptations, and are not helped out of them, because they stay for God to come to them in such a way, and see no salvation for them in himself, for than they would depend upon him. Agreeable to this Scripture is another, viz. Rom. 8. If we live after the flesh we shall die. Now there are many sorts of flesh, saith the Apostle; There is one kind of flesh of men, another of beasts, another of birds, another of fishes. There is flesh of fishes, that will carry a man swimmingly like the Spirit; and there is flesh of birds, that will soar aloft like the Spirit; there is high-raised flesh, but if we live after the motion or principle of any thing below God, we live after the flesh. Even if we live after the motion of Graces themselves, not resolving our graces into God. If the sparkling and turning of our graces themselves be the wine, that doth cheer and refresh us; yea, the flesh of Christ, if we stick in that vail, (and stand not in the naked Spirit of Christ, before God, passing through Christ's flesh, both in him, and in ourselves, as he hath passed through it,) we are not yet past out of the flesh.  
I say not, that they that have the use of forms are dying Christians, but they that depend upon them, they that cannot have life from God, unless he present himself to them in the flesh.  
Reas. 2 The second Reason; They that fall short of God are in a dying condition, but those whose life is bound up in any form, they fall short of God. He that attains not God, loses the Race, He that attains not the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, loses the Race, and he dies. He that is in bondage to outward observances, and depends upon them, falls short of God, that is, of the glory of God; He hath God under a vail in his form, but not God in his glory; He sees God vailed, not his open face, not as he is, He hears of God in a Parable, he sees him not plainly; even the flesh of Christ is a vail, and till we are passed through that (through the Mediatorship, and through the fleshly state in ourselves,) we appear not in the open presence of God.  
Reas. 2 The end of forms is death. The end of Christ's fleshly state and appearance was death; either we must lie and die in form (I mean not eternally,) or we must die to form.  
There's no coming to a higher state but by dying to the former state, Christ was Crucified in flesh, before Justified in Spirit; He that endures to the end shall be saved: He that passes through all things, forgets, and dies to imperfect discoveries, to fleshly appearances, (let them be never such spiritual flesh,) he only is in the way of this salvation here meant.  
The fleshly form (as it is in Saints) hath in it the seed and principle of the spiritual appearance, and genders it by dying; God that commanded light to shine out of darkness. God brings forth glory to his people by affliction, tribulation and dying. Their comforts go away in the flesh, ere they come in the Spirit. While the flesh lasts upon them, the Spirit is not broken forth. While the form or fleshly appearance is any thing to us, and we promise ourselves any thing from it, God is not all in all; while God is not all in all, our comforts are not brought forth in the Spirit, and so are not made perfect.  
In all fleshly appearances there is Enmity to God, therefore God is Enmity to them, and is the death of them. This Enmity is discovered in the disputes that we have about faith; Whether it justify as a Condition, or as an Instrument only; and about the Spirit, whether the Spirit be in us by presence or by influence only, which are mists that arise out of the bottomless pit, and argue, God is not all in all there, and so that soul is not perfected.  
The Scripture in 1 Zeph. 2. etc. parallels the dispensation Christians are under, I will utterly consume all things from off the Land, saith the Lord. I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the Heaven, and the fishes of the Sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked, and I will cut off man etc. and v. 4. I will stretch my hand upon the Inhabitants of Jerusalem, etc. (upon Professors;) And I will cut off (ver. 5.) them that worship, and swear by the Lord and Malcham. This is the condition of our times, light is broken in upon us, and we see that Ordinances are nothing without the Lord; every one will confess that; that the Letter is a dead Letter without the Spirit, and the Ordinances are mere forms without God's Appearance in them; and therefore our design is to couple the Lord and Ordinances together, and we cannot endure to hear of the parting of them: Swear by the Lord and by Malcham; even as you see men now adays do, so we may have but Ordinances, we are well: This is that which I was speaking of before, that we do promise ourselves something from the fleshly form and appearance, and so like the Israelites, we are hankering after the fleshpots of Egypt; though they had as good meat in the Wilderness, yet the fleshpots ran in their minds. So, though God offer himself, and though Christians tell you (for what they tell you, God tells you,) they tell you they cannot find God in such and such forms, but find him abundantly good in the Spirit, and they find that he recompenses the want of all forms in the Spirit; though he be gone out of the Temple, yet they find him in their hearts; they press you to wait till God appear to you in the Spirit: Oh (say you) I can never believe it, that God should do it without an Ordinance, or that God should strengthen you without an Ordinance. God (think you) with an Ordinance can strengthen me, and deliver me, and save me out of a temptation, not otherwise: this is to say, that the Ordinance or fleshly form, doth add something to God. If you will confess God to be all in an Ordinance, you must confess him to be all without an Ordinance, to be sufficient of himself.  
I desire not to be mistaken; I do not judge those that find God in Ordinances and outward forms, Let them wait upon God, and let them receive and partake of the benefit of the Ordinance, and let them bless God for it, and be faithful to their own principles, and let them be sweet to others; but when we do find God in a form, and in an Ordinance, to say, he is not to be found and enjoyed any other way, this is not a right Spirit. Nay, when we find not God in an Ordinance, yet we will keep to it, as if God were not to be enjoyed any other way. This is the greatest unreasonableness that can be, to put no worse a name upon it.  
Now I have done with the Reason of the point.  
I should show now who are the living Christians, and how they are in a more living condition that are free from the bondage of outward observances, that do not depend upon any fleshly appearance or administration, but see a fullness and sufficiency of God in the Spirit, and enjoy the same; for else, for men to have a notion and principle of it, and not to enjoy God in the Spirit; they may come from a sad outward Religion and forms, to no Religion, nay, to Atheism; and God will judge the free as well as the bond. They may be free from Ordinances, and yet may be as fleshly to God, as if they were under the Jewish observances.  
But the Use that I would make of what hath been delivered, is first a Use of Admonition unto those that are still in forms; and secondly, a word of Instruction to us all.  
1. It is for Admonition to those that are in forms; We say not, that the Lord is not within you, nor that which you do, you do not to the Lord; but the holy Ghost saith of you, you are dying Christians. While thou canst only see God in a fleshy Image and Representation, thou art in a dying condition: For it is a sign, thou seest not God in his glorious and Spiritual Appearance; for if thou didst, thou wouldst say as they in the Mount at Christ's transfiguration; Oh it is good for us to be here: Let us look no more for God in forms, and fleshly administrations; at least, you would desire to have your portion in fleshly Representations; (not but that, that man, who hath God broken forth in him, in spirit and power; may suffer others in those forms, and not lose his own enjoyments;) You are Christ's, and you are Christians, but you are in a fleshly and dying estate, and you may be put shrewdly to it, that do depend upon a form and fleshly administration: When it cannot be had, what wilt thou do? Thy case is much as a man's that is kept up by Cordials, and by means that the Physician uses to him, and not to be compared with him that is in a way of recovery, that is past the danger of his disease in whom nature is growing strong, and is overcoming the malignity of the disease by little and little. When the other wants the Physician, it is as much as his life is worth; and the Cordial, if it be long a fetching, the man gins to faint; he hath not his strength within him, but without in Cordials; So is the cases between him that lives upon Ordinances, and him that lives upon Christ in the Spirit. Christ is never in a journey, or to fetch a great way off, therefore I say, you are in a dying condition that depend upon forms.  
2. Use is of Instruction, to give us light in what the Lord is now doing, and in the consequence thereof.  
You have heard that forms cannot dispense to us the spiritual Discoveries of God, but by their going away in themselves; then God hath sent out the Spirit of Elijah among us, and God is contending with flesh; and God is come into his Temple, to sit there as a Refiners fire; and he is bringing down all our forms; But how? He is destroying them in the flesh, that he may give us them again in the Spirit.  
This is that account upon which we may converse together, and speak together informs; as yet, not in the oldness of the Letter, but in the newness of the Spirit; not accounting the form any thing, Ministers not reckoning themselves to be anointed above their fellows, and so making themselves Lords over God's Heritage. No, it was only Christ Jesus was anointed above his fellows, in that Administration, wherein he was to be of public use to the body, but the anointing runs down from the head to the skirts of his garment, etc. The anointing is upon you all Christians; it is the divine appearance within us anoints us above the world. The Lord hath a quarrel with all flesh, and we shall hear God speaking in one another more purely; and he will turn to us a pure language, when he hath made us a poor people. Poverty and Pureness shall go together.  
And then we will go no more forth to Malcham; and when God hath silenced, and stopped the mouth of all flesh, and he alone is exalted; then he will give you Judges, as at the first, and Counsellors, as at the beginning; and we shall all know the Lord, and be able to speak to one another, as at the beginning.  
Think not your Religion will not be, if the flesh of it be destroyed; we shall know it more in the Spirit, and see the anointing discovering itself upon the Body of Christ.   

THE Dying and the living CHRISTIAN.  ROM. 14. 8. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord, or whether we die, we die unto the Lord. 
SUch is the Nature of Man, such our darkness and blindness, such our unacquaintedness with spiritual things, that we are even , and startle at that that is our great interest.  
The Disciples, when Jesus Christ came walking unto them on the Sea, after he had been a while absent from them, took him for a Spirit, and cried out for fear. Jesus Christ, the Lord, that Spirit, that quickening Spirit; He hath been absent from us a while; namely, during the Apostasy, during the reign of Antichrist, and he is now visiting us, and is coming to us in his own appearance: (When Christ who is our life shall appear, When he shall break forth from under the Veil:) Now we know him not, and are exceedingly afraid; yea, we cry out for fear, we cry out of destroying Religion, pulling down Ordinances. This is the very case in the Text here. There were some in the Apostles days, that were still in the flesh, I mean, that were in that gross flesh, that were under that same thick Veil of the Jewish Pedagogy, and they were offended at others, from whom God had taken that Veil, and that did not walk in those Observances: they did judge them, very like they judged them to be irreligious men; What not observe a day, that God himself hath instituted? Not observe distinction of meats that God himself hath founded? What audaciousness is this to throw down the Ordinances of God.  
On the other hand, those that did see ground perhaps in the Letter for what they did, for the casting off the yoke of these outward Observances, yet not walking spiritually in this liberty, despised them that were still under these. When any thing of a form is received by our nature, by our flesh, there is a miscarriage in it. If God appear in our forms, we judge those that are above them. If God lead us above them, we are ready to despise those that are under them, remaining all this while in deed and in truth, under a form ourselves, though we appear in this distinction from others, for uncircumcision is a form as well as Circumcision, and it shows itself so to be by this uncircumcised despising of others for forms sake, in whom there may be as much or more power than in ourselves.  
In this Chapter the Apostle states the Controversy, and gives us a Rule to administer towards the one and the other. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not, and let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth, for the Lord hath received him. Peradventure the one of them is in a better state than the other, yet they are both of them in the Lord, they are the Lords. The one is a Living Christian, the other a Dying Christian, yet they are both the Lords: For saith he, Whether we live, we live unto the Lord, or whether we die, we die unto the Lord. And so we come to the words, whence we have observed; That God is not only in different forms but in opposite forms, such as are regarding a day, and not regarding it.  
We have observed likewise what the difference of Christians doth amount unto: those that are in bondage to Forms, and those that are set free from those forms; the one is a living and the other a dying man. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord, or whether we die, we die unto the Lord.  
I spoke of the dying Christian the last day, and shown you in what respect he is a dying Christian that is under Ordinances or that depends upon them (for every conversing in Ordinances is not a depending upon Ordinances:) First, It is a dying condition for he savours life Carnally, they savour their life according to the weakness of the flesh, and not according to the power of the spirit, according to the carnality of the form and not according to the spirituality of God. Therefore 'tis that men do put the Ordinances with God, as those that swore by the Lord and Malcham; they left not out the Lord, but would join Malcham with him too, they savour life carnally: and secondly they fall short of God, they fall short of the glory of God, ergo, they are dying Christians. They see God in his weakness, but they see him not in his strength: and thirdly, they must pass through death, for every form is raised up that it may die, and not that it should live for ever: it is raised up for a Ministration to Minister to some other thing, and therefore must have its period. Every form is but a way, yea the body of Christ is but a way, Through the new and living way that is his flesh: And I might have added another Reason, and that is this, That Jesus Christ, the end of his appearance in the flesh was death; He was manifested in the flesh and brought down the love of God and the glory of God in his flesh: he spoke the things of God to us in fleshly signs and parables, and the end of that State was death, and so likewise must the end of every State of Christians in the flesh and in Forms and Ordinances be: The Comforter could not come except Christ did go away. An higher appearance of God cannot come but it removes a lower appearance of God, as a grain of corn doth not rise up but by dying and rorting in its first body, as the Apostle speaks. But it shall suffice to have spoken thus much concerning the dying Christian.  
But now what is this same living Christian?  
Whether we live we live unto the Lord.  
Who is it that lives? why the Lord lives, and only the Lord, they shall swear, The Lord liveth: and, As I live saith the Lord: There is none lives but God, so that whosoever lives, it is by the Lord living in him. The Apostle saith so much, when he saith, not I, but Christ liveth in me.  
This same living th●● of the Lord in us doth relate unto the dying and burial of the Lord in us. The Lord he is buried or obscured in us, and then he riseth, as it is said, I am he that was dead and am alive, and behold I live forevenmore, and as it is Ephes. 4. He that ascended is the same also that first descended into the lower parts of the earth. And this is the great Mystery of godliness; God manifest in the flesh, and justified in the Spirit; first manifest in the flesh, The Word was made Flesh, and dwelled among us, etc. And so the Word comes, and at length carries up flesh with it into spirit.  
Indeed we are but the grave, as it were, of the Lord Jesus. This whole Creation, as it is known after the flesh, and as it is enjoyed by us, and as we converse with it carnally, and as it is carnally received by us, it is but the Tomb, as it were, where the Lord is interred; it is but the grave, the sepulchre wherein the Lord is buried.  
Why then, what is the living of the Lord, the Lords Resurrection, the Lords sprouting forth out of this same grave, this same sepulchre?  
Answ. It is this, it is the Lords appearing and the Lords discovering himself, and the Lords coming forth and putting off his Veil and covering, putting off his grave-cloaths (as I may say,) this is the Lords living.  
For the more profitable handling of this, take these things.  
1. That the Lords death is the creatures life. The burying or obscuring of the Lord Jesus is the life of man, and the life of forms, and the life of flesh.  
2. And in the second place the resurrection & appearance of the Lord is the death of man, and the death of forms, and the death of flesh. While the Lord Jesus hides himself, while he breaks not forth in his glory the creature is something, and Forms are something, and they grow up and flourish as the grass doth by the showers. But when the Lord Jesus comes forth in his Spirit, and appears, than the grass withereth, and the flower fadeth, so we find it in Esay 40. 6, 7. The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All Flesh i● gross, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The gross withereth, the flower fadeth; because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is gross. What is the meaning of the Spirit of the Lord blowing upon it? The meaning is this, when the Lord comes forth in his Spirit, and reveals himself in his glory, than the glory of flesh passeth away, as when the Sun appears in the firmament the stars take their leave: we know that as flesh is enmity unto spirit, so spirit is enmity unto flesh, and therefore it is said, that they lust the one against the other.  
In the third place take this proposition, That as the obscuring of the Lord Jesus is the life of the creature and the life of that flesh, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is the extinguishing of the Creatures life. So thirdly, this is, and hath been the design of God, and his glory from the beginning; to come forth out of this same grave, and from under this same Veil (under which he hath lain hid, and been covered) by several steps; and therefore every step of Christ's appearance, is, comparatively with the former darkness; a state of life, and a gradual Resurrection.  
When Christ did come forth from under the Jewish Ceremonies, when the body was come, than was Christ raised in some sense, and then did Christ begin to live and flourish; and those that saw this, they lived, in the Apostles sense here, Whether we live, we live unto the Lord.  
Here was a gradual Resurrection in this, though not a complete Resurrection. There was a thicker Veil taken off of Christ, and a thinner vail put on: so that Christ then coming forth under a thinner Veil, is called by the name of the highest and last appearance of all; It is called a (Living,) not but that Christ did still lie under a vail, as the Apostle saith, Through the vail, that is, his flesh. And the New Testament Ordinances, though they are finer vails, yet they are vails to the Lord; yea, I may say, that the very graces of the Saints, as we look upon them in a kind of fleshly form; as we look upon them in their particular names and circumstances; so they are a vail to the Lord Jesus; yea, Christ is said to rise when he comes into the world; I am come, that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly, that is, more abundantly than they had under the Jewish Ordinances, because that was a grosser vail: In this sense you may understand, That I am the way, the truth and the life, etc. If you understand it in the flesh, it is in comparison of the former, a lively appearance of God; Not that this is the highest appearance of God, for to you that look for him, he shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation. So that, I say, Christ is coming out of the grave, and every step is a step to life, a step of the Resurrection, a degree of life. Now then from these things, if you ask me who is this same living Christian, I shall answer you, first, in a Subordinate sense, secondly, in an Ultimate sense.  
In a Subordinate sense, he is a living Christian, in whom the Lord Jesus hath passed through many forms and vails: He that is not in bondage to those same gross, and thick, and dark appearances of God.  
But now in the Ultimate sense, the Truth is, that while we are on this side, that same highest and brightest appearance of God, till he comes to be all in all in us; we cannot be said to be living Christians, though in respect of former and darker appearances; the present appearance of God to us, may set us up in a higher degree of life, yet in comparison of that which is to come; the very best and highest of this state is but a death; while God administers to us under any form, under any vail, there is so much of darkness, and there is so much of fear and enmity against God: and therefore (I pray mark it) those disputes among us concerning faith; whether the act of faith doth justify us; or whether it be an act of God that doth justify us; I conceive that herein faith is perverted, and we do make a quite contrary use of it then ever God appointed; he ●ath set up faith, as a light in a dark place; and behold we are ascribing that unto faith which is due only unto God. And hence is that other dispute; Whether God doth dwell in us only by grace, and be with us only by influences and operations, as he is in other creatures after their kind: Whence arise these questions, but out of the smoke of the bottomless pit? and out of enmity against God? That grace, and the influences of God will step into the place of God himself, they will step into the place of the Bridegroom. Christ himself in the Spirit, is the grace of the Spirit. So that while God appears unto us under any form, (even grace that is the purest vail,) yet God is not all in all: we find faith would be something, and grace would be something, and this is through the flesh.  
Now there is but one thing more to do, and that is a little to explain as far as we can, what this same resurrection in a man, what this same putting off of the vail is; what the state of a Believer is in such a condition.  
I shall express it to you by these two things; By the purity, and by the strength of it.  
The Purity lies herein, that the Lord, he is all in all: Here is the Purity of that state; Ordinances they are not, Graces, they are not; the Lord is all in all; the Lord is all in graces, nay, the Lord is all in himself; he is sufficient to the soul: The Lord is that which Ordinances were, and that which Graces were, that the Lord is; as you shall see, Rev. 21. 22. And I saw no Temple there, for the Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb are the Temple of it. Mark it; what are all Ordinances, but as the Temple was under the Law? The Temple was that same form, wherein God appeared unto his people. It was a figure to them of the body of Christ, in which the fullness of the God head, was to dwell, and doth dwell: When Jesus Christ came, who was the body, the Temple was no more. So, the same comparison we may make between the flesh of Christ, or Christ in the flesh, and Christ in the Spirit; What was the flesh of Christ but the true Temple, the body, the substance of that figure and shadow that was amongst the Jews? Thus it was in relation to types that went before; But what was it in respect of that which was to come afterwards? I will send you another Comforter, even the Spirit of Truth, etc. That this Comforter may come, this same presence of Christ must be removed, It is expedient for you that I go away, and destroy this Temple, and I will raise it up again the third day; But when he was raised again (I beseech you do but mark,) did Christ let his body be of that use to his Disciples after he risen again? When Mary came, and fell at his feet to kiss them, saith Christ, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father. The same with that which Paul speaks, 2 Cor. 5. Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth know we him so no more. Marry (saith Christ) my body is no longer a Temple, but your hearts and spirits must be the Temple; I am not yet ascended, etc. Thou must know nothing in me as before; Thou must know God in me; I am breaking forth into the glory of the Father, and shall not appear in the flesh any more.  
Christ in the flesh met with many an unbelieving soul, that went unbelieving away from him; but Christ appearing in the Spirit, opens the most unbelieving heart. This is the first thing in this same living Christian; nothing but Purity itself; nothing but God himself, is his repast, is his delight.  
2. But than secondly, This estate may be described by its strength and power also. It is that which, I confess, is a stumbling block to the world, (and it may well be so) to see men boast of such attainments above ordinances, and yet to have so little sign of them in their walking and conversation; to see them carnal still, to see them dote upon the world still, to see them still as proud and passionate as ever. My beloved, you have not so learned Christ, if you be living men; if you have the living principle in you, your life is not to discourse in another sphere and dialect than most men do; it is not to be able to contradict, and throw down the forms of the world. This is not this same living man; No, where the Lord Jesus is broke forth in Spirit, where he is risen from the dead; Mighty works will show forth themselves in that man; It is a state of power and of glory, and therefore saith the Apostle, phillip 3. That I may know him, and the power of his Resurrection. Oh, there is power in Christ's Resurrection! All these Scriptures belong unto that state, He that is born of God sinneth not, for the seed of God abideth in him, neither can he sin, because he is born of God; He that abideth in him sinneth not. You have these Scriptures in the first Epistle general of John; To them that look for him, the second time shall he appear without sin unto salvation. Oh, if Jesus Christ doth but put up his head in our Horizon, he chaseth away much darkness, as the Sun when it peeps towards day, but when Jesus Christ is fully risen, there shall not be the least Cloud, the least corner hid from him; he will detect all corruption there, and divide between the joints and the marrow. There is no such purifying in the world, as by the presence and appearance of the Lord Jesus in the Spirit; he purifies, while in him we see the Love of God in the flesh; but when jesus Christ is risen in you, he makes you purify yourselves, as he is pure; he fetcheth up all from the bottom. This takes you off from I dollizing, not only the forms of your Religion, but the forms of your content in outward things. Let not that man say he lives in the Spirit, that is buried in any creature. Let not any man say he is above Ordinances, that is not above the forms of this world. If he do not weep, as if he wept not, and rejoice, as if he rejoiced not, and buy, as though he possessed not, and use this world, as not abusing it. Considering, that the fashion thereof (these forms as well as others) passeth away.  
This is a state of power, his prayers are made with spirit and life, he enjoys God in every thing that he doth, and is in Heaven in all he doth; he wants no command to tell him he must do thus and thus; he would naturally do those things, whereby he might show forth the virtues and praises of him that hath called him, for he is a living man; who needs stir up life, to live, in a living man? Life will show itself; If you be living Christians, the Spirit of God will work in you, and it will be like fire consuming your flesh, and every day carrying you forth to the honour and praise of God.  
This is a living man, and this is he in whom Christ is risen.  
But one Question more, and that is, of what part or principle in a man are these things spoken; Doth this life break forth in the flesh, or is it a life in the Spirit only?  
I answer, that this life is not in any part or principle in a man; It is not in the soul, it is not in the body, it is not in the Spirit, but a a man is taken up into this life; It is when we are removed from ourselves, that we are in the Spirit; Enoch was not, for God took him. The Lord takes us into this life; we take not the Lord into our principle; we are not comprehenders of this life, but we are comprehended: Here is the mistake; we see men that hold forth such a doctrine and principle as this, and we see flesh, it may be, in them still, and they see flesh in themselves still. Do but consider therefore that same place, 1 John 3. beginning compared with the 6. verse; Now are ye the Sons of God, but it doth not yet appear what ye shall be; but when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Compare but this with the 6. verse. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not.  
We are the Sons of God, but it doth not yet appear; our flesh is a vail, and while we are in the flesh, let us act never so spiritually, yet we fall short of this life; Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God: But if at any time, we are taken up into the communion of this life, it is by being taken out of ourselves; therefore, saith Paul, Whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell. I conceive, God gave Paul an earnest of that which he will make known to his people in the latter days; and made it known to Paul in a visible and sensible rapture: and whosoever in the latter days, is taken into the communion of this life, must be spiritually dissolved as Paul was; for as Christ crucified in the flesh, is but a fleshly pattern of our being crucified in the Spirit. So Paul being taken out of the body fleshly, is but an Image of the Believers being taken out of the body into the Spirit; and so when we are taken up into him, He that abides in him sinneth not. But when we go to make out God in our flesh, behold we cannot make out the glory of this appearance in us; when we come to live in a fleshly principle, I say, we find shortness, and death, and darkness, and make out the things of God, in visible and audible shapes, as it were; but God makes out himself to us, when he takes us out of ourselves into himself without any form; Did you see any shape, saith the Lord to the Israelites, when the Lord talked with you? So when the Lord takes a man into this communion with himself, he takes him out of the flesh, off from Ordinances, administers not to him in the flesh; and thus indeed it is, that only when we are taken out of ourselves, can we apprehend or speak of this same life in God. A Believer, when he is taken up into God and Christ; he sees that which he cannot make out by all his parts, and all the helps that he hath; he sees that freedom from sin; he sees, as it were, that omnipotency with him; when he is taken up, he sees himself perfect, as God said to Abraham, walk before me, and be perfect. Here is that which he cannot make out to the world. Well may men say; Do not we see that you are a man; I am so, but you cannot see what I am, when I am taken up into God. God is the subject and recipient that comprehends us, we cannot comprehend him.  
Use. Now all that I would infer from hence, is thus much; I beseech you that you would know the things that concern your peace. O, what a sad thing is it, that men should run away from life! This is an evil heart with a witness, to departed from the living God. This is darkness with a witness, when the Creature will comprehend God, and will not be comprehended by God; when we will say, There is no other enjoyment of God, than what we can make out in the flesh; No other state then what may be visible to men. Oh, take heed of this, and take heed of despising those that bring you the glad tidings of peace; How beautiful rather should even the feet of those be, though upon the Mountains, that bring these glad tidings, that say unto Zion, thy God reigneth.  
Christ hath been long in a Sepulchre, he is now rising, and you have the Testimony hereof brought to you by men like yourselves, and we are not able to make out the glory of it to you: This flesh is not the subject and recipient of this glory; this flesh is laid by, But what we have seen and heard, we declare unto you; And therefore, we beseech you not to departed from the living Lord. Every man would be a living man in his health: Every man would be a living man in his trade, would drive a free trade, and will you only be content to be dead creatures in respect of communion with God? I beseech you, gird up the loins of your minds, be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is yet to be brought unto you by the Revelation of Jesus Christ in Spirit, as well as believe that grace that is already brought by the Manifestation of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Do but consider, that God hath always entertained his people with a long expectation of things, ere he hath given them. It was but in the Apostles days, that the first fruits of the Spirit were given. The Israelites were in Egypt 400 years, before they came to the Land of Canaan. This was but a typical Canaan, and not worth the waiting so long for as the spiritual Canaan.  
Then again consider, God's promises have been first sown, and dead in the earth of man's unbelief, before they have been performed; witness, Sarahs' womb barren; witness, the children of Israel in Egypt made slaves and bondmen; what likelihood was thereof their being a Kingdom of Priests unto God? Nay, from the beginning of the performance, there is usually an Apostasy that comes before the full accomplishment; was it not so when God began to perform his promise to Israel, of leading them into Canaan? Did not they fall back in the wilderness? Was it not so in Abraham when Isaac was born, and growing up to his Father's hope? Then Isaac must be sacrificed. So, I conceive, it is here; the Spirit began to be sprinkled in the primitive times in gifts, and since that, what an Apostasy hath there been? So that the Spirit is yet to be poured out; and now after the Apostasy is to be the harvest. And so I am persuaded many Christians enter into Ordinances, in the Spirit, and fall back into the flesh; there remains therefore a Restitution, a latter day, a latter rain; as Job speaks, at the latter day I shall see God in my flesh; and is not the Lord putting up his head in our Horizon? Therefore think not the promises of life and salvation have given down all they have travailed with.   
FINIS.   

A Postscript.  
Lest my meaning in any thing be locked up from the Readers understanding, I thought good to add the key of this distinction.  
1 There is a twofold Administration of the Kingdom of God, viz. outward and inward; the outward in signs the inward in truth.  
2. As the outward and the inward Administration are contradistinguished the one to the other, so they are distinguished, and differ gradually in themselves. (i. e.) The outward Aministration, or Letter of the Gospel, excels that of the Law. So likewise in the inward Administration or Revelation in us. The first Appearance of Christ in us, is swallowed up of his second Appearance in us: The Kingdom of the Father excels the Kingdom of the Son; and the state of the Resurrection of Christ in us, the state or likeness of his death.  
And therefore, when it is said, that Christ in Spirit dwelling and working in our hearts, reveals the Father plainly, whom we saw but as in a Parable in his flesh, or without us. I desire ye should understand also, that the first Appearance of Christ within us doth not give a full and perfect testimony and witness of the Father, for then the Apostle would not have said of such that they see darkly; and there would be no expectation of a second Appearance; and upon this account it is, that in that discourse on John 16. 25. I speak of Righteousness, and Sanctification, and Faith, and Love being forms or glasses which must all be resolved into God, at length, that he may be all in all.  
And the same thing I desire may be carried in mind for the understanding of those discourses on John 17. 19 That as the inward Appearance and Working of Christ is the truth of the Outward, and the outward is but a Form serving thereto; so the second appearance of Christ in us is the truth of the first appearance, and the first appearance is but the way unto the latter.  
And when as in those discourses on Rom. 14. they are held forth as dying Christians that stick in Forms and things outward in the flesh of Christ, I desire Saints may be ware that there is the flesh of Christ within them, or a fleshly manifestation or appearance of Christ in flesh in them, which is that that they are not to satisfy themselves withal, but are to wait till they be brought forth with Christ in the glory of the Father, till faith and Righteousness and all those Forms & Vails be broken up into one single view of the Father or God all in all, till childish things, thoughts and language be put away, and we see God face to face as he is; till God himself be a place of broad Rivers and Streams in his own Name, and not under another name; till he make all things new, and bring forth all our enjoyments of him in a new light and a new glory. So much as we are short of this, so much are we under death, though we may be passed from outward forms, and have the life dwelling in us. And they that shall deny this to be possible in this life, must deny the new Jerusalem, to come down from God out of heaven and the express letter of Revelations Chapter 22, verses 3, 4, 5. where it is written, And there shall be no more curse, but the Throne of God, and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him; And they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their foreheads; And there shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither light of the Sun; for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign for ever and ever.  
And they that say this body of ours hinders, err, not knowing the power of God, and what that flesh is that cannot inherit, which is not this body (which is in its self, neither good nor evil) but the subject of two Inhabitants, two Men, and so is good or evil, as it is ruled by the one or by the other; the old or the new man; Self or Christ: the old man may be and is destroying in Saints daily, while the body remains.  
These things are hinted in the precedent discourses more generally, and obscurely; I add this only for explanation.  
FINIS.